Carbon dioxide is produced by living things when they metabolize.
In general, plants capture much more CO2 than they produce.They combine it with water in the process of photosynthesis to produce glucose. So plants remove Carbon dioxide, rather than produce it.
So, I think there is some mistake here about what you are asking.
However, carbon dioxide can weather rocks. When carbon dioxide is in the air it can dissolve in water. Then it is in the form known as carbonic acid H2CO3. This is a weak acid which can dissolve some kinds of rocks, in particular, limestone/marble. These days the rocks are much more likely to be weathered by Sulfuric acid. That comes in "acid rain." The acid rain is formed when coal is burned, mainly for generating electricity. Coal is mostly carbon, so when it is burned it makes carbon dioxide. But coal also contains a mixture of other materials, especially sulfur. When coal containing sulfur is burned the sulfur becomes sulfur dioxide, SO2. The sulfur dioxide mixes with water in the air to become H2SO3 or H2SO4. That is a much more powerful acid which can rapidly dissolve limestone rocks. In Europe and the eastern US there are lots of places where you can see this. For instance, if you go to an old cemetery in the eastern US there are thousands of old white gravestones from the 1800s and early 1900s which are seriously worn away in just 100 years as a result of this. Because of the tremendous damage that acid rain causes, we have spent a lot of money in various systems that try to remove the acid from the coal smoke.
I hope that helps.
2007-05-21 02:43:06
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answer #1
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answered by matt 7
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