Carbon Dioxide a Molecule of Life

Juan Apolinario C. Reyes

Carbon dioxide does not deserve the demonization it is getting from climate-change activists. Carbon dioxide, next to sunlight, water, and oxygen, is an essential molecule for life. CO2 is the gas molecule behind photosynthesis. CO2 is food for plants.

The drivers of Earth's climate are the following:

a. Sun's radiant energy. The sun's radian energy is the main driver of climate as it injects the planet with heat. This heat affects temperature, and the movement of air masses and ocean currents. 

b. Water. The carrying capacity of water, in all of its forms, for heat is huge. This is basic chemistry. Water drives the change in climate through evaporation, condensation, and movement of ocean currents.

c. Volcanism. Volcanism sends massive quantities of aerosols and gases into the atmosphere. These block the radian energy of the sun. Some 650 million years ago, our planet turned into a ball of snow because of a chain of volcanic eruptions that took place somewhere in Greenland. Earth turned into a huge ball of ice for 9 million years.

d. Plate tectonics. Plate tectonics refers to the movement of Earth's crust. It is also the process that is behind continental drift. Continents do not stay in their places permanently. They are drifting. This significantly affects the ocean currents. And the oceans being the storage of heat, their movement and distribution significantly affect climate.

Carbon dioxide or CO2 is a molecule of life. We call organic molecules organic because of carbon. That carbon or much of it came from CO2.

What does organic mean?

It means organism. It means living things. Organic means elements essential to living tissues.

CO2 means life.




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