ENVS 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Hydrosphere, Lithosphere
13 Dec 2016
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ENVS: The Carbon Cycle
Earth’s Structural “Spheres”
● Lithosphere:
○ Rock, sediment, soil, below the earth’s surface
● Atmosphere:
○ Air surrounding the planet
● Hydrosphere:
○ All water-salt and fresh, liquid, ice, and vapor
● Biosphere:
○ All the planet’s living things, and the abiotic parts of the environment with which
they interact
Human Changes: Carbon Dioxide
● Combustion:
○ Heating of organic matter with oxygen to convert potential (chemical) energy into
useable forms. Releases CO2 in the process
CO2 Summary
● CO2 is a greenhouse gas
○ It can trap heat in the atmosphere
● There has been a steady (and increasing) upward trend in atmospheric CO2
concentrations over the last 200 years.
● Current CO2 concentrations are higher (~400 ppm) than they have been for the past 3
million years
What could we do about rising CO2?
● Reduce the emissions
● Remove the CO2 from the atmosphere:
○ Geoengineering or climate intervention
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Rock, sediment, soil, below the earth"s surface. All water-salt and fresh, liquid, ice, and vapor. All the planet"s living things, and the abiotic parts of the environment with which they interact. Heating of organic matter with oxygen to convert potential (chemical) energy into useable forms. There has been a steady (and increasing) upward trend in atmospheric co2 concentrations over the last 200 years. Current co2 concentrations are higher (~400 ppm) than they have been for the past 3 million years.
