The electricity that powers your home is generated by a coal-burning power plant, and you drive a gasoline-powered car. You decide to halve your electric bill by turning off all lights and appliances when you do not need to use them. You also decide to walk or ride your bicycle rather than drive to do errands in your neighborhood. Evaluate the effect that these actions might have on two different aspects of the carbon cycle if every person in your neighborhood also performed them.

The extent of carbon emission to the atmosphere will reduce thereby decreasing the amount of carbon that is released into the atmosphere in the carbon cycle if we all use bicycles instead of driving around our neighborhood.

If we choose to turn our appliances off, less coal is extracted and burnt to generate energy thereby also reducing the extent of carbon dioxide emission.

Explanation:

The carbon cycle may be defined as all the sequence of processes that involve the interconversion of carbon compounds to various species in nature. It refers to process such as; incorporation of carbon dioxide into living tissue by photosynthesis and ingestion of organic matter by animals, its return to the atmosphere through respiration, the decay of dead organisms, and the burning of fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels are generally a very important source of energy. Both gasoline and coal are fossil fuels. The disadvantage of fossil fuels is that the use of fossil fuels increases the concentration of CO2 gas returned to the atmosphere as part of the carbon cycle. This increased CO2 level in the atmosphere leads to greenhouse effect and global warming.

If I and all my neighbors decide to turn off our appliances when they are not in use, less energy is consumed and less coal is burnt for energy thereby reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted back to the atmosphere in the carbon cycle.

Similarly, if we all ride bicycles while running errands around our neighborhood, less gasoline is burnt as fuel and less carbon dioxide is emitted back into the atmosphere in the carbon cycle.

If less carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere, less carbon dioxide will be available for photosynthetic organisms to take in and this may affect the primary productivity along the food chain. Since plants act as a carbon dioxide sink nature, less carbon dioxide emission will imply less photosynthesis