Atmospheric CO2 levels have increased
by more than 40 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, from
about 280 parts per million (ppm) in the 1800s to 400 ppm today. The last time
Earth's atmospheric levels of CO2 reached 400 ppm was during the Pliocene
Epoch, between 5 million and 3 million years ago, according to the University
of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. (https://www.livescience.com/37743-greenhouse-effect.html)
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
That is a worrying thing to say, more
so when it is a true state of the natural environment. Please note that the
statement from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography is saying from 1800s
(many use 1850 as the starting point) to now there is a 40% increase in carbon
dioxide, a greenhouse gas, emission into the atmosphere! The statement said also
that the last time the Earth’s atmosphere was bombarded with such magnitude of
greenhouse gas was between 5 million and 3million years ago! Then, I suppose
man was not around. This time round the agency of bombardment is man, the
in-charge! An activity associated with the increase or the beginning of the
increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the industrial revolution.
For the industrial revolution to keep
its pace in other to meet the needs of ever growing human population on planet
Earth, industries must be fed with hydrocarbons. It is from the burning of
hydrocarbons by man to keep the industrial revolution going, to meet their
needs that has partly resulted in the increase in carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere. In a compound like carbon dioxide, there are one atom of carbon and
two atoms of oxygen. The increase in carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, means
increase in the warming of the surface temperature of planet Earth. In the next
two paragraphs livescience.com tells us how it happens chemically.
“Sunlight enters the atmosphere as
ultraviolet and visible light; some of this solar energy is then radiated back
toward space as infrared energy, or heat. The atmosphere is 78 percent nitrogen
and 21 percent oxygen, which are both gases made up of molecules containing two
atoms. These tightly bound pairs don't absorb much heat.
But the greenhouse gases, including
carbon dioxide, water vapor and methane, each have at least three atoms in
their molecules. These loosely bound structures are efficient absorbers of the
long-wave radiation (also known as heat) bouncing back from the planet's
surface. When the molecules in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
re-emit this long-wave radiation back toward Earth's surface, the result is warming.”
(https://www.livescience.com/58203-how-carbon-dioxide-is-warming-earth.html)
HYDROCARBON
I have indicated that hydrocarbons
were used to keep the industrial revolution going. Indeed today they are still
needed to sustain our civilization, though there is a slow shift to renewables.
Hydrocarbon as the name indicates, is a compound of hydrogen and carbon.
Let me share with you how hydrocarbon
has been defined in an October 18, 2018 Francis A. Carey article in britannica.com.
“Hydrocarbon, any class of organic chemical compounds composed only of the
elements carbon (C) and hydrogen (H). The carbon atoms join together to form
the framework of the compound, and the hydrogen atoms attach to them in many
different configurations.”
The hydrocarbons are:
Coal
Oil
Natural Gas
Methane
Butane- used in the making of rubber
Propane- used as a fuel (LP gas)
Hexane- used as a solvent
Plastics (made from petrochemicals)
Asphalt (hydrocarbon heated to form
tar for roads)
Paraffin (from crude petroleum) - used
for candle, preservatives and waterproof coatings)
LIST OF GREENHOUSE GASES
The burning of
hydrocarbons in particular result in the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere. The greenhouse gases as indicated trap and release heat of sunlight
thus causing global warming. The following are some greenhouse gases and their
atomic contents.
CARBON DIOXIDE
(CO2) - 1 atom of carbon and 2 atoms of oxygen
METHANE (CH4) - 1
atom of carbon and four atoms of hydrogen
NITROUS OXIDE
(N2O) – 2 atoms of nitrogen and 1 atom of oxygen
DICHLORODIFLUOROMETHANE
(CCI2F2) – 2 atoms of carbon, 2 atoms of Iodine and 2 atoms of Fluorine
CHLORODIFLUOROMETHANE
(CHCIF2) – Carbon, Fluorine, Chlorine, Hydrogen
TETRAFLUOROMETHANE
(CF4) – Carbon, Fluorine
HEXAFLUOROETHANE
(C2F6) – Carbon, Fluorine
SULFUR
HEXAFLUORIDE (SF6) – Sulfur, Fluorine (6 fluorine atoms and 1 sulfur atom)
NITROGEN
TRIFLUORIDE (NF3) – Nitrogen, Fluorine
OXONE (O3) -
Oxygen
WATER VAPOR (H2O
(g)) – Hydrogen, Oxygen
GREENHOUSE GASES WITH THE HIGHEST EMISSIONS VOLUMES
Following the
list of greenhouse gases I continue with another list of gas emission rates.
This list is to complement the previous list in highlighting carbon content.
|
Rank
|
Greenhouse
Gas
|
Share
of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions Volume
|
|
1
|
Carbon Dioxide from
Fossil Fuels and Agro-Forestry
|
76%
|
|
2
|
Methane
|
16%
|
|
3
|
Nitrous Oxide
|
6%
|
|
4
|
Fluorinated Gases
|
2%
|
This list was extracted from https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/greenhouse-gases-with-the-highest-emissions-volumes.html
PREVALENCE
According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon
-introduction): “Carbon is the 15th most abundant element in the
Earth’s crust, and the fourth most abundant element in the universe by mass
after hydrogen, helium and oxygen.” Further, it says: “Carbon’s abundance, its
unique diversity of organic compounds, and its unusual ability to form polymers
at the temperatures commonly encountered on Earth enables this element to serve
as a common element of all known life.”
Yet still another statement from
the same source of Wikipedia: “Carbon
forms a vast number of compounds, more than any other element, with almost ten
million compounds described to date,[21] and yet that number is but a fraction of the
number of theoretically possible compounds under standard conditions. For this
reason, carbon has often been referred to as the "king of the
elements"”.
Have you ever heard of the term
“carbon footprint”? It is the yardstick for measuring greenhouse gases emitted
into the atmosphere and therefrom global warming, as a result of human activities
here on planet Earth. It is the amount of greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere
by an individual or a body corporate through their activities. It is
particularly used in measuring carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. Not
all greenhouse gases contain the element carbon, yet the term carbon footprint,
containing the word carbon as an element is used to cover all of them! Carbon
footprint, by etymology is a Y2K era phrase. It is a twenty-first century term.
The emission of other greenhouse gases apart from carbon dioxide are measured
in the equivalence of carbon dioxide, making carbon dioxide the standard gas by
which greenhouse gases are measured.
Carbon footprint is generated
through human activities; from the extraction, processing, manufacturing,
production, usage and disposal of materials of the natural environment,
required for the sustenance of human life. It may be a greenhouse gas emitted
by an individual. It may be a greenhouse gas emitted by an institution. It may
be a greenhouse gas emitted by an industry. It may be a greenhouse gas emitted
by the consumption of a product.
By this post it is being
reiterated that carbon though the 15th most abundant element in the
Earth’s crust, it has an extraordinary ability to couple up with other elements
to form more compounds than any other element. If you take hydrocarbon, a sine
quo non for our civilization, even today, for example, it is a compound made up
of hydrogen and carbon as indicated. The compound carbon dioxide, a leading
greenhouse gas, is made up of the elements carbon and oxygen. Another leading
greenhouse gas methane, comprises 1 atom of carbon and 4 atoms of hydrogen. Of
the 11 greenhouse gases I have listed in this post, 6 of them contain carbon.
The emission list of highest emissions I have provided in this post puts carbon
dioxide and methane as the top two, with carbon dioxide as by far the highest
emission. Both carbon dioxide and methane contain carbon.
PARTING SHOT
From the foregoing it clear that
carbon has its finger in many compounds of the natural environment due to its
extraordinary innate ability, if you like, to synergize with other elements
like none other. That we cannot prevent from happening. It is by the
predominant presence of carbon by copulating with other elements to form compounds,
not an element in itself, that make carbon such a predominant element in the
natural environment, and by the careless usage of resources of the natural
environment by man, greenhouse gases.
We cannot stop carbon from making
compounds with other elements, as there is nothing wrong with that, but we can
and must apply natural resources of the natural environment in ways as to reduce
our carbon footprint in a sustainable manner for a cool Earth that should
engender coherent, symbiotic and comfortable living for its inmates.
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