How long, do you think, it takes for CO2 IN THE AIR, to breakup into Oxygen and Carbon?
“The persistence of anthropogenic CO2 in the atmosphere cannot be estimated with such a simple model because exchange with the ocean and sediments leads to a more complex behavior. Model simulations of oceanic CO2 uptake provide response times associated with CO2 gas exchange at the ocean surface of approximately 10 years [Liss and Merlivat, 1986; Toggweiler et al., 1989] and downward mixing of surface waters on the order of decades to centuries [Maier-Reimer and Hasselmann, 1987; Sarmiento et al., 1992]. But even when these oceanic CO2 removal processes are allowed sufficient time in the models to reach their maximum capacity, they can remove only about 70 to 85% of the anthropogenic CO2 added to the atmosphere [Archer et al., 1998; Broecker and Peng, 1982; Sarmiento et al., 1992]. Additional CO2 might be removed by burial in soils or deep sea sediments through mechanisms that, although poorly understood, are generally believed to require times extending to thousands of years [Harden
CO2 is part of the carbon cycle. The carbon cycle has a serious of processes and sinks where carbon is stored. The carbon can be taken out of the atmosphere by a number of processes, However it is a stable compound so it does not readily break up. CO2 is used by plants in photosynthesis. The trees take in carbon dioxide and using light convert it into water and oxygen, which is then realeased back into the atmosphere. The vegetation is one of the biggest carbon stores in the world. CO2 is also absorved by the oceans, which is quite worrying really. The ocean has already absorbed about 50% of the carbondioxide which humans have realised in to the atmosphere. What this means is the absorption of the CO2 into the ocean is gradually turning the sea acidic. (hydrochloric acid). This can effect all kinds of species. C02 is then released into the atmosphere by respirtation, fossil fuel burning, forest fires, decomposistion etc.
Actually CO2 is a stable compound. It does not disintegrate into something else unless a set amount of energy is provided. It occurs naturally in atmosphere. The abundance of CO2 in atmosphere is 0.08% compared to 70% for Nitrogen and 26% or 28% for Oxygen. The rest are Nobel gases found naturally in the environment. Both carbon and the two oxygen have eight valence electrons in the outer shell thus they have achieved the “Octet-state” (the state Nobel gases are in). It requires 360 kJ/mol to break a C-O bond so double that (because co2 has two bonds one carbon bonded to one oxygen on both sides) and you get 720 kJ/mol. Thus, that is the amount of energy it would require to completely break a CO2 bond. And yes, for each molecule of CO2 that plants break down, they must expend that amount of energy.
