Why is it thatt the Earth is between Venuns and Mars but has litte carbon dioxide in its atmosphere?

Question

Why is it thatt the Earth is between Venuns and Mars but has litte carbon dioxide in its atmosphere?

Answer 1

Billions and billions of years ago, the atmosphere of Earth was much like Venus and Mars. The first forms of microbial life breathed CO2 and emitted O2. Then, along came organisms that did the opposite, leading to the equilibrium we have today.

One of the ways scientists expect Venus and Mars to be terraformed, if ever, is to first introduce similar microbes to those environments, which would transform the atmospheres of the two planets to something much more like Earth's.

Answer 2

I'm not sure why being between Venus and Mars has any bearing on the chemical composition of our atmosphere.

The reason we have less carbon dioxide in our atmosphere than Venus is:
- plant life absorbs CO2
- CO2 can be broken down to carbon and oxygen, and the carbon can be incorporated into rocks (limestone), ocean water, and life (such as seashells), so the carbon is removed from the cycle
But we also produce CO2 (burning fossil fuels for example) that has escalated over the past few decades and is being produced faster than its being removed from the atmosphere (which is one of the causes of global warming).

We have more than Mars because we are in the middle of the habitable zone of our sun (meaning we're at the right temperature to allow liquid water to remain on the surface). This is what helps drive our weather patterns which help drive the absorption and production of CO2.

Answer 3

Have you ever stood by a camp fire, then moved twice as far away? There's a lot less heat further away, in fact 1/3 as much heat. Mars is close to twice as far from the sun as earth is; sometimes more, sometimes less. Would you rather have 95% of a 10 year old kids net worth, or .03% of Bill Gates fortune? 95% of nearly nothing (the thin atmosphere of Mars) doesn't come close to the .03% of CO2 around earth. Mars is warming up. Due to the dust storms that have developed blowing away dust and exposing darker ground, not because of a raised solar output. You are a prime example of what happens when creation is taught in schools as science, not as myth.

Answer 4

Because Earth's atmosphere has been radically transformed by living organisms like plants and coral. Most of Earth's carbon dioxide is locked away in calcium carbonate by oceanic organisms.

Answer 5

Much of the earth's carbon dioxide is now in plants. Plants have been absorbing carbon dioxide for a couple billions of years and it has been going down into the earth when the plants die. This is where all of our fossil fuels like oil and coal have come from.

We are now extracting all of those fossil fuels and re-releasing them into the atmosphere..... to our detriment.

Answer 6

LIFE.

Most of the carbon that was in the atmosphere was trapped in carbon based organisms.

EDIT

Bravo Joan H. * * * * * *

EDIT

The Bastard son of Beefcake. The atmosphere is about 78%N2, 20% O2, and traces of other stuff including Argon, Helium, and less that 1/2% CO2.

Answer 7

Actualy the earth has a lot of co2 in its atmosphere, as well as oxygen, and many other gases. I beleive the most prevalent gas is nitrogen.
The "air" that we breathe is certainly not considered oxygen, but a wide mixture of many gases. If we breathed pure oxygen, we would be differently made than we are.
Many things emit co2. breads, and sodas and beer, rely on the formation of it from yeasts eating sugars, to form the gas. plants emit it daily, cows emit it, (as well as methane, and carbon monoixide) every person and mammal , or animal alive emits it. There is a lot of it around us constantly.

Answer 8

for the same reason there is such an abundance of oxygen: plant life. Plants had to be the first landbased organism, for without them, our atmosphere would be CO2 rich just like Mars and Venus.

Answer 9

Because GOD or whatever U want to say put plants here. All green plants recycle CO2 into O2 for us and the plants keep the C to make there food.

Answer 10

Because we have plants that consume CO2 and emit O2. Venus and Mars don't.