The Low Carbon Partnership
Solar Power
Where is all of the extra CO2 coming from?
There have been trees and other plants living on Earth for millions of years. They use the energy of the sun, through the process of photosynthesis, to take carbon dioxide from the air, use the carbon to grow, and give out oxygen. Trees that lived and died millions of years ago left remains that got buried and compressed – or squashed - as soil and rock gradually built up over them. The same process happened to tiny creatures that lived in the sea – dying, getting buried and compressed. And, over many millions of years the pressure changed these plant and animal remains into coal, oil and gas. That is why these fuels are called fossil fuels – and they are all rich in carbon.
 |
 |
 |
When these fossil fuels are burned, the carbon within them is released as carbon dioxide. The carbon that has been trapped within the Earth for millions of years enters the atmosphere once more. People’s use of fossil fuels to produce energy increased massively during the industrial revolution about 200 years ago, and since then the concentration of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere has increased by 30%.
Today we burn fossil fuels to provide energy for lots of the everyday things in life; to run vehicles, to heat and power our homes and industries and to produce electricity. However, all of this has a direct effect on the increasing amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, which is trapping the heat and tipping the important balance of the greenhouse effect.
