How Earth Is Visualized As A Living, Breathing System (credit: NASA)

As seen on @NatGeo's #OneStrangeRock: Earth's oceans & vegetation are doing us a favor by removing some of the CO2 that is released into the air. Our @NASAEarth satellites and missions monitor our breathing planet every day, see how: https://t.co/cYONDXr9qY pic.twitter.com/nWtkeO0WCf

— NASA (@NASA) March 27, 2018

DISCUSSION: During the course of a given year, there is no question that there is an abundance of evidence proving that Earth effectively has a "living and breathing system" which is in a state of constant flux.  This is perfectly illustrated by the fact that as shown in the looped real-color satellite imagery attached above, Earth's oceans and foliage operate as a "filter" to help purify the air surrounding Earth (even in the presence of continued fossil fuel consumption).  Thus, Earth's oceans and foliage act as a balancing force in Earth's ability to clear out a solid percentage of man-based consumption of fossil fuels which underlines the importance of protecting the Earth's forests and Earth's oceans.  Attached below are some exact excerpts from the actual article which was published by NASA and discusses some of the core principles of this research.

"Carbon naturally cycles through Earth’s environments. Trees and other plants take up carbon dioxide and turn it into the building blocks of roots, stems and leaves. Some of that carbon stays in the soil as the vegetation dies and gets buried. Some is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide through plant respiration, and both carbon dioxide and methane — another potent, carbon-based greenhouse gas — can be released through decomposition, land clearing and wildfire. The ocean absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and the tiny water-dwelling plants called phytoplankton take up the gas as well. Over many millennia, the pace of carbon cycling is governed by volcanic emissions and weathering of rocks.

For most of human history, carbon has been in a more-or-less steady cycle. This cycle has been thrown off balance as people burn fossil fuels — carbon that has been long buried underground as oil, gas and coal — and as forests are cleared and soils are turned for agriculture. All of these contribute to increasing carbon emissions. While the amount of carbon dioxide emissions that ecosystems absorb from the atmosphere each year varies quite a bit, the fraction in the long run has averaged out to about half.

More carbon dioxide and methane in the air means warmer global temperatures. Warmer temperatures can disrupt some ecosystems and impact their ability to absorb more and more carbon. An even more imbalanced carbon cycle will cause greater variability and consequences that are not yet fully understood."

To learn more about this particular story as published by NASA, click on the following link: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/carbon-climate.

To learn more about other neat stories surrounding observations in geo-science, be sure to click on the following link:                    https://www.globalweatherclimatecenter.com/observations.

© 2018 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz