CHAPTER 6 Picture This. Your Turn

Picture This. YOUR TURN: Annual Carbon Dioxide Increase

Picture This. YOUR TURN

Annual Carbon Dioxide Increase

The graph shows atmospheric concentrations of CO₂ measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory. The green line shows seasonal variation around the annual average (black line). Use what you have learned in this chapter to answer the following questions.

1. Question 6.74

   Why does the global atmospheric CO₂ concentration fluctuate seasonally?

2. Question 6.75

   Why is the average global CO₂ concentration rising with each passing year? Where is that carbon coming from?

CHAPTER 6 Further Reading

• Diamond, Jared. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. New York: Viking Press, 2005.

• Riser, Stephen, and M. Susan Lozier. “Rethinking the Gulf Stream.” Scientific American 308 (February 2013): 50–55.

• Zachos, James, et al. “Trends, Rhythms, and Aberrations in Global Climate 65 Ma to Present.” Science 292 (2001): 886–993.