Earth’s atmosphere contains carbon dioxide, which is good for life on Earth – in moderation. Plants use CO 2 as the source of the carbon they build into leaves and wood via photosynthesis. In combination with water vapor, CO 2 insulates the Earth, keeping it from turning into a frozen world. Life as we know it on Earth would not exist without CO 2 in the atmosphere.
Since the industrial revolution began, however, humans have been adding more and more carbon dioxide to the Earth’s atmosphere, and it has become a problem.
The atmospheric concentration of CO 2 has risen by more than 50% since industries began burning coal and other fossil fuels in the late 1700s, reaching concentrations that haven’t been found in the Earth’s atmosphere in at least a million years. And the concentration continues to rise .
