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What Is So Unique About CO2?

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Liberating Energy from Carbon: Introduction to Decarbonization

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Energy ((LNEN,volume 22))

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Abstract

Considering that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is extremely low: only 400 ppm or 0.04 vol.%, it is surprising how much impact this gas exerts on life on our planet. What is so unique about CO2? In this chapter, Greenhouse effect, radiative forcing, global warming potential, global carbon cycle, and other phenomena that control the livability of our planet are linked to unique optical and physicochemical properties of CO2. An increasing body of scientific evidence suggests that humans are affecting the Earth’s radiative and carbon balances mainly through increased emissions of greenhouse gases originating from industrial activities, land-use change, deforestation, and other practices that became prevalent during the rapid industrial development of the last two and half centuries.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    ppm stands for “part per million”; hereafter ppm relates to volume units (unless otherwise indicated), e.g., 1 ppm = 0.0001 vol%.

  2. 2.

    In this book, the amount of CO2 may be presented in the units of carbon (C) or CO2. For example, 1 GtC is equivalent of 3.66 GtCO2.

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  1. Florida Solar Energy Center, University of Central Florida, Cocoa, FL, USA

    Nazim Muradov

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Muradov, N. (2014). What Is So Unique About CO2?. In: Liberating Energy from Carbon: Introduction to Decarbonization. Lecture Notes in Energy, vol 22. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0545-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0545-4_2

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