You’ve probably been hearing that term quite a bit lately during the UN Climate Conference in Paris. Many companies and organizations, are pledging to become carbon neutral. But what does it mean?
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the amount of CO2 naturally expelled into the atmosphere naturally balanced the amount absorbed by the ocean and plants.
That is all part of the Earth’s biological carbon cycle process.
But as the Industrial Revolution era began, we started tipping the carbon cycle out of balance. We dug up additional hydrocarbons out of the ground to power our society. We tore down forests for wood, fuel and agriculture.
And burning all those fossil fuels is expelling CO2 at a rate that’s beyond the Earth’s natural capacity to absorb it, causing an over-accumulation in the atmosphere and destroying our natural carbon sinks at the same time.
And now we’ve reached a point where this surplus of CO2 is causing climate change that may soon be irreversible if we don’t bring the concentration back toward net zero.
So when you hear the terms carbon footprint neutralization, carbon neutrality, carbon sequestration, carbon offset, climate neutrality, etc. these are all different ways of talking about the same core issue.
Reaching carbon neutrality means taking action to reduce and offset the amount of CO2 (and other greenhouse gasses) we create in order to achieve a net zero anthropogenic carbon emission, and of course avert a potential catastrophe.
Know more about CO2 neutrality initiative:http://universityofcalifornia.edu/news/uc-brings-california-s-climate-change-message-paris
http://sustainability.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/carbonneutrality2025_berkeley.april15.pdf
Gif showing how our planet’s climate is expected to change by 2099
Animation via NASAhttp://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/climate-models-show-potential-21st-century-temperature-precipitation-changes/#.UyNmXlFdXZG
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