What is carbon?

All living things on Earth contain carbon. Like every other living thing on this planet, we are a part of Earth's carbon cycle. Plants take in CO2. They keep the carbon and give away the oxygen. Animals breathe in the oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Carbon, including carbon dioxide, has cycled into and out of the air for a long time. This cycling of carbon has stayed balanced over long periods of time.

• Vegetation
  As plants grow, they use CO2 from the atmosphere to build and maintain their biomass, thus slowing atmospheric CO2 increases.

• Fossil fuels
  Burning coal, oil, or natural gas transfers carbon from fossil pools created hundreds of millions of years ago into Earth's atmosphere where it affects climate and ecosystems.

• Soils
  As leaves and plants die and decompose, some of the carbon in biomass is incorporated into soil where it may be stored for long periods; the remainder returns to the atmosphere as CO2.

• Fires
  Fire due to human activities or natural causes also adds CO2 to the atmosphere. Following fire, recovering ecosystems accumulate carbon from the atmosphere, countering for a time emissions by fires and fossil fuel use.

atmospheric

/ˌætməsˈferɪk/
relating to the Earth’s atmosphere

decompose

decay

the remainder

the part of something that is left after everything else has gone or been dealt with

counter

counteract
to do something to reduce or prevent the bad effects of something