I keep hearing about CO2 being a pollution and we need to stop it, so does that mean it's a pollution? I'm confused because every time I breath I give off CO2.
2007-11-18 12:30:45 · 11 answers · asked by en tu cabeza 4 in Environment ➔ Global Warming
How could something you exhale and plants breathe be a pollutant? This is a stretch to make this claim.
Using this logic, oxygen is also a pollutant because oxygen is very corrosive and toxic at higher concentrations.
2007-11-18 15:15:06 · answer #1 · answered by Dr Jello 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
The EPA has ruled CO2 is a regulateable "pollutant". The concern is about the amount of CO2 is the air and not CO2 itself. Many people are quite worried about the possibility of global warming, but their is no solid evidence that it is or is not actually happening. The problem is, if it is happening from our CO2, by time we can be sure of it, it would be way too late to react. If it is not happening from our CO2 and is instead from solar fluctuation (Mars' ice caps are melting too), then our actions on CO2 may end up keeping billions of people in poverty by preventing modernization.
I think it is best to recognize that we must reduce the amount of energy we need to produce goods and identify alternate & sustainable means to produce that energy. In the end this will help the United States and Europe with energy security, facilitate the modernization of third world communities, and provide a hedge against possible climate change.
The Kyoto Treaty does not provide well for this possibility. All of it's industrialized signers will fail it's first benchmarks while they buy credits from Russia, floating their political system status quo, and the largest polluters have no limits for many years. China has passed the United States in CO2 output, but still produces only a third the goods!
It really isn't a problem that you exhale CO2, it is a concern that the things you buy were made buy burning a lot of fossil fuel and the things you throw away will be burned, both releasing way more CO2 than you will ever exhale. So it is in regard to the burning that we have to consider CO2 a pollutant.
The best advice is the 3Rs - Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle, all of which limit CO2 pollution! Good Luck!
P.S. You can drown in just 2 tablespoons of water, but we don't ban it!
2007-11-18 14:47:58 · answer #2 · answered by Brian L 4 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Carbon is an element on the periodic table. Carbon dioxide is a molecule made up of 1 Carbon atom bonded to 2 Oxygen atoms. It has the formula CO2. The molecule looks like this O=C=O with double bonds between the carbon and oxygen atoms.
2016-05-24 03:02:50 · answer #3 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Carbon Dioxide is in some ways a little like a waste product. It is what you breath out.
Plants take it in and produce oxygen - which we need. Its pretty cool.
The problem is that we are creating a whole lot of CO2 (and other gasses) and there is just not enough absorbtion to take it in!
In that way it is a pollutant
2007-11-18 13:22:06 · answer #4 · answered by Clank R 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Pollution is any contaminant that could have harmful effects in the environment within which it exists. Carbon dioixide can have harmful effects within the atmopshere and is therefore technically a pollutant.
If you were to bottle it up and store it in a canister then it wouldn't be a pollutant because in that environment it's not causing any harm.
Some subtances that are pollutants can be both beneficial and detrimental at the same time. As far as we're concerned CO2 is a pollutant but to a plant it's essential.
It all comes down to context.
2007-11-18 14:08:51 · answer #5 · answered by Trevor 7 · 1⤊ 3⤋
The Carbon in Coal, and Oil has been in Solid or Liquid form for millions of years. To put such a large percentage of it into the Air at one time is bad. Think of it like Sugar. Your body has Sugar in it. Sugar is Good, but if you eat 5 pounds of Sugar in one day, and then do that every day for a year, your body will not be healthy. Such is the same with the Earth's "Body."
2007-11-18 13:44:42 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It can be, if there is too much of it.
It's exactly like water. Too much, and you have a destructive flood.
"Pollutant" is a legal term, not a technical one. The US Supreme Court has said CO2 is legally a pollutant. Since this is a legal issue, they win.
2007-11-18 15:12:00 · answer #7 · answered by Bob 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The concern with CO2 is that the levels found in air dramatically exceed anything found in measureable history. Scientists have taken core samples in Greenland and Antarctica which allow them to measure the air going back thousands of years.
What this could lead to is a matter of speculation. The tie to modern industry and technology seems far beyond coincidental. This is the root of Global Warming theories.
2007-11-18 12:45:34 · answer #8 · answered by SJ 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Can you live in CO2? No. Co2 is very bad for animals, but not for plants. but plans can not overcome all the CO2 in the atmosphere.
2007-11-18 12:47:27 · answer #9 · answered by LMurray 4 · 1⤊ 3⤋
You probably couldn't live with out it either
2007-11-18 12:55:51 · answer #10 · answered by vladoviking 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋