What do Carbon dioxide and Fossil fuel have in common?

Average surface air temperatures from 2011 to 2021 compared to the 1956–1976 average

Climate change

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Contemporary climate change includes both global warming and its impacts on Earth's weather patterns.

Change in average surface air temperature since the industrial revolution, plus drivers for that change. Human activity has caused increased temperatures, with natural forces adding some variability.

Global surface temperature reconstruction over the last 2000 years using proxy data from tree rings, corals, and ice cores in blue. Directly observed data is in red.

Drivers of climate change from 1850–1900 to 2010–2019. There was no significant contribution from internal variability or solar and volcanic drivers.

concentrations over the last 800,000 years as measured from ice cores (blue/green) and directly (black)

The Global Carbon Project shows how additions to since 1880 have been caused by different sources ramping up one after another.

The rate of global tree cover loss has approximately doubled since 2001, to an annual loss approaching an area the size of Italy.

Sea ice reflects 50% to 70% of incoming solar radiation while the dark ocean surface only reflects 6%, so melting sea ice is a self-reinforcing feedback.

Projected global surface temperature changes relative to 1850–1900, based on CMIP6 multi-model mean changes.

The sixth IPCC Assessment Report projects changes in average soil moisture that can disrupt agriculture and ecosystems. A reduction in soil moisture by one standard deviation means that average soil moisture will approximately match the ninth driest year between 1850 and 1900 at that location.

Historical sea level reconstruction and projections up to 2100 published in 2017 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program

The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2021) projects that extreme weather will be progressively more common as the Earth warms.

Scenarios of global greenhouse gas emissions. If all countries achieve their current Paris Agreement pledges, average warming by 2100 would still significantly exceed the maximum 2 °C target set by the Agreement.

Coal, oil, and natural gas remain the primary global energy sources even as renewables have begun rapidly increasing.

Economic sectors with more greenhouse gas contributions have a greater stake in climate change policies.

Most emissions have been absorbed by carbon sinks, including plant growth, soil uptake, and ocean uptake (2020 Global Carbon Budget).

Since 2000, rising emissions in China and the rest of world have surpassed the output of the United States and Europe.

Per person, the United States generates at a far faster rate than other primary regions.

Academic studies of scientific consensus reflect that the level of consensus correlates with expertise in climate science.

Data has been cherry picked from short periods to falsely assert that global temperatures are not rising. Blue trendlines show short periods that mask longer-term warming trends (red trendlines). Blue dots show the so-called global warming hiatus.

The 2017 People's Climate March took place in hundreds of locations. Shown: the Washington, D.C. march, protesting policies of then-U.S. President Trump.

Tyndall's ratio spectrophotometer (drawing from 1861) measured how much infrared radiation was absorbed and emitted by various gases filling its central tube.

alt=Underwater photograph of branching coral that is bleached white|Ecological collapse. Bleaching has damaged the Great Barrier Reef and threatens reefs worldwide.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sos.noaa.gov/datasets/coral-reef-risk-outlook/|title=Coral Reef Risk Outlook|access-date=4 April 2020|publisher=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration|quote=At present, local human activities, coupled with past thermal stress, threaten an estimated 75 percent of the world's reefs. By 2030, estimates predict more than 90% of the world's reefs will be threatened by local human activities, warming, and acidification, with nearly 60% facing high, very high, or critical threat levels.}}</ref>

alt=Photograph of evening in a valley settlement. The skyline in the hills beyond is lit up red from the fires.|Extreme weather. Drought and high temperatures worsened the 2020 bushfires in Australia.<ref>{{harvnb|Carbon Brief, 7 January|2020}}.</ref>

alt=The green landscape is interrupted by a huge muddy scar where the ground has subsided.|Arctic warming. Permafrost thaws undermine infrastructure and release methane, a greenhouse gas.

alt=An emaciated polar bear stands atop the remains of a melting ice floe.|Habitat destruction. Many arctic animals rely on sea ice, which has been disappearing in a warming Arctic.<ref>{{harvnb|IPCC AR5 WG2 Ch28|2014|p=1596|ps=: "Within 50 to 70 years, loss of hunting habitats may lead to elimination of polar bears from seasonally ice-covered areas, where two-thirds of their world population currently live."}}</ref>

alt=Photograph of a large area of forest. The green trees are interspersed with large patches of damaged or dead trees turning purple-brown and light red.|Pest propagation. Mild winters allow more pine beetles to survive to kill large swaths of forest.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/romo/learn/nature/climatechange.htm|title=What a changing climate means for Rocky Mountain National Park|publisher=National Park Service|access-date=9 April 2020}}</ref>

Environmental migration. Sparser rainfall leads to desertification that harms agriculture and can displace populations. Shown: Telly, Mali (2008).<ref>{{harvnb|Serdeczny|Adams|Baarsch|Coumou|2016}}.</ref>

Agricultural changes. Droughts, rising temperatures, and extreme weather negatively impact agriculture. Shown: Texas, US (2013).<ref>{{harvnb|IPCC SRCCL Ch5|2019|pp=439, 464}}.</ref>

Tidal flooding. Sea-level rise increases flooding in low-lying coastal regions. Shown: Venice, Italy (2004).<ref name="NOAAnuisance">{{cite web|url=http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/nuisance-flooding.html |title=What is nuisance flooding? |author=National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration |access-date=April 8, 2020}}</ref>

Storm intensification. Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr (2007) is an example of catastrophic flooding from increased rainfall.<ref>{{harvnb|Kabir|Khan|Ball|Caldwell|2016}}.</ref>

Heat wave intensification. Events like the June 2019 European heat wave are becoming more common.<ref>{{harvnb|Van Oldenborgh|Philip|Kew|Vautard|2019}}.</ref>

Instead, they are caused by the emission of greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide and methane.

Burning fossil fuels for energy production creates most of these emissions.

Petroleum

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Naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations.

Shale bings near Broxburn, 3 of a total of 19 in West Lothian.

This wartime propaganda poster promoted carpooling as a way to ration vital gasoline during World War II.

Unconventional resources are much larger than conventional ones.

Octane, a hydrocarbon found in petroleum. Lines represent single bonds; black spheres represent carbon; white spheres represent hydrogen.

Structure of a vanadium porphyrin compound (left) extracted from petroleum by Alfred E. Treibs, father of organic geochemistry. Treibs noted the close structural similarity of this molecule and chlorophyll a (right).

A hydrocarbon trap consists of a reservoir rock (yellow) where oil (red) can accumulate, and a caprock (green) that prevents it from egressing.

Some marker crudes with their sulfur content (horizontal) and API gravity (vertical) and relative production quantity.

Nominal and inflation-adjusted US dollar price of crude oil, 1861–2015.

Oil consumption per capita (darker colors represent more consumption, gray represents no data) (source: see file description).

Global fossil carbon emissions, an indicator of consumption, from 1800. {{legend|black|Total}}{{legend|blue|Oil}}

Rate of world energy usage per year from 1970.<ref name="BP-Report-2012">BP: Statistical Review of World Energy {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516003736/http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle800.do?categoryId=9037130&contentId=7068669 |date=May 16, 2013 }}, Workbook (xlsx), London, 2012</ref>

Daily oil consumption from 1980 to 2006.

Oil consumption by percentage of total per region from 1980 to 2006: {{legend|red|US}}{{legend|blue|Europe}}{{legend|#D1D117|Asia and Oceania}}.

A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, mostly zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock and subjected to both prolonged heat and pressure.

Monosaccharides in turn ultimately decayed to CO2 and methane.

Estimated change in seawater pH caused by human-created carbon dioxide between the 1700s and the 1990s, from the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project (GLODAP) and the World Ocean Atlas

Ocean acidification

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Here is a detailed image of the full carbon cycle

NOAA provides evidence for the upwelling of "acidified" water onto the Continental Shelf. In the figure above, note the vertical sections of (A) temperature, (B) aragonite saturation, (C) pH, (D) DIC, and (E) p on transect line 5 off Pt. St. George, California. The potential density surfaces are superimposed on the temperature section. The 26.2 potential density surface delineates the location of the first instance in which the undersaturated water is upwelled from depths of 150 to 200 m onto the shelf and outcropping at the surface near the coast. The red dots represent sample locations.

The cycle between the atmosphere and the ocean

Distribution of (A) aragonite and (B) calcite saturation depth in the global oceans

This map shows changes in the aragonite saturation level of ocean surface waters between the 1880s and the most recent decade (2006–2015). Aragonite is a form of calcium carbonate that many marine animals use to build their skeletons and shells. The lower the saturation level, the more difficult it is for organisms to build and maintain their skeletons and shells. A negative change represents a decrease in saturation.

Here is detailed diagram of the carbon cycle within the ocean

Bjerrum plot: Change in carbonate system of seawater from ocean acidification.

Shells of pteropods dissolve in increasingly acidic conditions caused by increased amounts of atmospheric

A normally-protective shell made thin, fragile and transparent by acidification

Drivers of hypoxia and ocean acidification intensification in upwelling shelf systems. Equatorward winds drive the upwelling of low dissolved oxygen (DO), high nutrient, and high dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) water from above the oxygen minimum zone. Cross-shelf gradients in productivity and bottom water residence times drive the strength of DO (DIC) decrease (increase) as water transits across a productive continental shelf.

Demonstrator calling for action against ocean acidification at the People's Climate March (2017).

Ocean acidification: mean seawater pH. Mean seawater pH is shown based on in-situ measurements of pH from the Aloha station.

"Present day" (1990s) sea surface anthropogenic {{chem|CO|2}}

Vertical inventory of "present day" (1990s) anthropogenic {{chem|CO|2}}

Change in surface {{chem|CO|3|2-}} ion from the 1700s to the 1990s

A NOAA (AOML) in situ {{chem|CO|2}} concentration sensor (SAMI-CO2), attached to a Coral Reef Early Warning System station, utilized in conducting ocean acidification studies near coral reef areas

A NOAA (PMEL) moored autonomous {{chem|CO|2}} buoy used for measuring {{chem|CO|2}} concentration and ocean acidification studies

Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH value of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The main cause of ocean acidification is human burning of fossil fuels.

Carbon cycle

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Biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth.

Detail of anthropogenic carbon flows, showing cumulative mass in gigatons during years 1850-2018 (left) and the annual mass average during 2009-2018 (right).

CO2 concentrations over the last 800,000 years as measured from ice cores (blue/green) and directly (black)

Amount of carbon stored in Earth's various terrestrial ecosystems, in gigatonnes.

A portable soil respiration system measuring soil CO2 flux.

Diagram showing relative sizes (in gigatonnes) of the main storage pools of carbon on Earth. Cumulative changes (thru year 2014) from land use and emissions of fossil carbon are included for comparison.

Carbon is tetrahedrally bonded to oxygen

Knowledge about carbon in the core can be gained by analysing shear wave velocities

Schematic representation of the overall perturbation of the global carbon cycle caused by anthropogenic activities, averaged from 2010 to 2019.

The pathway by which plastics enter the world's oceans.

Carbon stored on land in vegetation and soils is aggregated into a single stock ct. Ocean mixed layer carbon, cm, is the only explicitly modelled ocean stock of carbon; though to estimate carbon cycle feedbacks the total ocean carbon is also calculated.

Epiphytes on electric wires. This kind of plant takes both CO{{sub|2}} and water from the atmosphere for living and growing.

CO{{sub|2}} in Earth's atmosphere if half of global-warming emissions are not absorbed.<ref name="NASA-20151112-ab" /><ref name="NASA-20151112b" /><ref name="NYT-20151110" /><ref name="AP-20151109" /> (NASA computer simulation).

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere had increased nearly 52% over pre-industrial levels by 2020, forcing greater atmospheric and Earth surface heating by the Sun.

The sediments, including fossil fuels, freshwater systems, and non-living organic material.

Greenhouse gas

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Gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect.

Radiative forcing (warming influence) of different contributors to climate change through 2019, as reported in the Sixth IPCC assessment report.

Atmospheric absorption and scattering at different wavelengths of electromagnetic waves. The largest absorption band of carbon dioxide is not far from the maximum in the thermal emission from ground, and it partly closes the window of transparency of water; hence its major effect.

Concentrations of carbon monoxide in the Spring and Fall of 2000 in the lower atmosphere showing a range from about 390 parts per billion (dark brown pixels), to 220 parts per billion (red pixels), to 50 parts per billion (blue pixels).

Increasing water vapor in the stratosphere at Boulder, Colorado

Schmidt et al. (2010) analysed how individual components of the atmosphere contribute to the total greenhouse effect. They estimated that water vapor accounts for about 50% of Earth's greenhouse effect, with clouds contributing 25%, carbon dioxide 20%, and the minor greenhouse gases and aerosols accounting for the remaining 5%. In the study, the reference model atmosphere is for 1980 conditions. Image credit: NASA.

The radiative forcing (warming influence) of long-lived atmospheric greenhouse gases has accelerated, almost doubling in 40 years.

Top: Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as measured in the atmosphere and reflected in ice cores. Bottom: The amount of net carbon increase in the atmosphere, compared to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuel.

Recent year-to-year increase of atmospheric.

The US, China and Russia have cumulatively contributed the greatest amounts of since 1850.

The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone.

The vast majority of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions come from combustion of fossil fuels, principally coal, petroleum (including oil) and natural gas, with additional contributions from cement manufacturing, fertilizer production, deforestation and other changes in land use.

Fuel

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Any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work.

Fuel gauge for gasoline on a 50 ccm scooter, with the typical pictogram of a gas pump

Two CANDU ("CANada Deuterium Uranium") fuel bundles, each about 50cm long and 10cm in diameter

Nuclear fuel pellets are used to release nuclear energy.

Most liquid fuels in widespread use are derived from the fossilized remains of dead plants and animals by exposure to heat and pressure inside the Earth's crust.

The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes (21.3 gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, but it is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount, so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year (one tonne of atmospheric carbon is equivalent to 44/12 or 3.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide).

Middle Triassic marginal marine sequence of siltstones (reddish layers at the cliff base) and limestones (brown rocks above), Virgin Formation, southwestern Utah, U.S.

Sedimentary rock

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Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation.

Uluru (Ayers Rock) is a large sandstone formation in Northern Territory, Australia.

Claystone deposited in Glacial Lake Missoula, Montana, United States. Note the very fine and flat bedding, common for deposits coming from lake beds further away from the source of sediment.

Sedimentary rock with sandstone in Malta

Lower Antelope Canyon was carved out of the surrounding sandstone by both mechanical weathering and chemical weathering. Wind, sand, and water from flash flooding are the primary weathering agents.

Outcrop of Ordovician oil shale (kukersite), northern Estonia

Fossils of Nerinea marine gastropods of Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) age, in limestone in Lebanon

Cross-bedding and scour in a fine sandstone; the Logan Formation (Mississippian) of Jackson County, Ohio

Pressure solution at work in a clastic rock. While material dissolves at places where grains are in contact, that material may recrystallize from the solution and act as cement in open pore spaces. As a result, there is a net flow of material from areas under high stress to those under low stress, producing a sedimentary rock that is harder and more compact. Loose sand can become sandstone in this way.

A piece of a banded iron formation, a type of rock that consists of alternating layers with iron(III) oxide (red) and iron(II) oxide (grey). BIFs were mostly formed during the Precambrian, when the atmosphere was not yet rich in oxygen. Moodies Group, Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa

Diagram showing well-sorted (left) and poorly sorted (right) grains

Diagram showing the rounding and sphericity of grains

Global collage of sand samples. There is one square centimeter of sand on every sample photo. Sand samples row by row from left to right: 1. Glass sand from Kauai, Hawaii 2. Dune sand from the Gobi Desert 3. Quartz sand with green glauconite from Estonia 4. Volcanic sand with reddish weathered basalt from Maui, Hawaii 5. Biogenic coral sand from Molokai, Hawaii 6. Coral pink sand dunes from Utah 7. Volcanic glass sand from California 8. Garnet sand from Emerald Creek, Idaho 9. Olivine sand from Papakolea, Hawaii.

Fossil-rich layers in a sedimentary rock, Año Nuevo State Reserve, California

Burrows in a turbidite, made by crustaceans, San Vincente Formation (early Eocene) of the Ainsa Basin, southern foreland of the Pyrenees

Cross-bedding in a fluviatile sandstone, Middle Old Red Sandstone (Devonian) on Bressay, Shetland Islands

Flute casts, a type of sole marking on the base of a vertical layer of Triassic sandstone in Spain

Ripple marks formed by a current in a sandstone that was later tilted (Haßberge, Bavaria)

Halite crystal mold in dolomite, Paadla Formation (Silurian), Saaremaa, Estonia

Chert concretions in chalk, Middle Lefkara Formation (upper Paleocene to middle Eocene), Cyprus

Common types of depositional environments

The swirls of tan, green, blue, and white are sediment in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico off the Yucatan Peninsula. The blue-green cloud in this image roughly matches the extent of the shallow continental shelf west of the peninsula. This is a perfect example of a shallow marine depositional environment.

Shifting sedimentary facies in the case of transgression (above) and regression of the sea (below)

Plate tectonics diagram showing convergence of an oceanic plate and a continental plate. Note the back-arc basin, forearc basin, and oceanic basin.

Cyclic alternation of competent and less competent beds in the Blue Lias at Lyme Regis, southern England

The Permian through Jurassic stratigraphy of the Colorado Plateau area of southeastern Utah that makes up much of the famous prominent rock formations in protected areas such as Capitol Reef National Park and Canyonlands National Park. From top to bottom: Rounded tan domes of the Navajo Sandstone, layered red Kayenta Formation, cliff-forming, vertically jointed, red Wingate Sandstone, slope-forming, purplish Chinle Formation, layered, lighter-red Moenkopi Formation, and white, layered Cutler Formation sandstone. Picture from Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah.

Sedimentary rocks on Mars, investigated by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover

Steeply dipping sedimentary rock strata along the Chalous Road in northern Iran

Stratified remains of Puʻu Mahana cinder cone.

A regressive facies shown on a stratigraphic column

Sedimentary rocks are also important sources of natural resources including coal, fossil fuels, drinking water and ores.

At high pressure and temperature, the organic material of a dead organism undergoes chemical reactions in which volatiles such as water and carbon dioxide are expulsed.

A report on Carbon dioxide and Fossil fuel