Human Activities on the Carbon Cycle

Using then textbook and further reading resources create an extended piece of writing to evaluate the impacts of human activities on the carbon cycle. (Urbanisation, deforestation, changes is agriculture, land-use, change and extraction and burning of hydrocarbons)

The carbon cycle is a biogeochemical cycle which carbon is exchanged in the biosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. 

Along with the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle the carbon cycle shows a sequence of events that make the Earth capable of sustaining life; it describes the way carbon is recycled and reused throughout the biosphere. Urbanisation, deforestation, changes is agriculture, land-use, change and extraction and burning of hydrocarbons are all factors that mostly negatively affect the carbon cycle. By cutting down trees for farmland, and extracting fossil fuels and using them humans are releasing a great deal of C02 into the atmosphere that is disrupting the cycle and making the inputs and outputs uneven.

Urbanisation is the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more and more people begin living and working in these areas. Urbanisation affects the carbon cycle when people decide to cut down trees to accommodate growing populations. Trees are large carbon sinks, which means that they absorb and store carbon dioxide. Deforestation means that there are fewer trees to absorb the carbon dioxide that we are constantly producing. When a tree is cut down and allowed to degrade, it releases the trapped carbon back into the atmosphere. This causes the earth to heat up, which is also known as global warming. Urbanisation affects the oxygen cycle because when you create urban areas more people inhabit these areas. A higher concentration of people within an area can cause shortages in important resources, such as food and water. Every day we use up fossil fuels, electricity and oxygen but there is not enough plants and trees to absorb all the carbon dioxide that we produce since humans cut them down to build these urban areas.