What's Your Footprint?
CO2 Basics
. Produced for Conservation Tales: Manatees. (2018)

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a gas found in the air we breath. When you exhale, you are giving off carbon dioxide, because your body makes this chemical compound when you burn food for energy. In fact, all living things give off carbon dioxide. 

But we also produce carbon dioxide through other processes. When we burn any carbon-based fuel, the carbon and oxygen atoms in those fuels recombine into carbon dioxide. Burning these fuels can produce a lot of carbon dioxide! Carbon-based fuels include wood, oil, natural gas, and ethanol fuels. Some cities also burn garbage as a fuel, and that is mostly carbon-based material.

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​Normally, the air we breath contains only 0.04% carbon dioxide. This is about 400 parts per million - For every 1 million molecules of gas in the air, 400 are carbon dioxide. Compare that to oxygen! Oxygen makes up about 21% of the air, or 210,000 parts per million.

Two different models of a
carbon dioxide molecule.

Scientists have noticed that carbon dioxide levels have been increasing over the last several decades. This has scientists concerned. Click on "CO2 & Climate Change"
​to learn more about why.