Question

Humans respire, emitting a surplus of CO2 to the atmosphere with every breath. Human population has grown from about 2 billion in 1940 to over 7 billion today. Explain why human respiration does not contribute to the growth in atmospheric CO2 over that time.

A) The time period (1940-2018) is about the length of a human lifetime.

B) Humans eat seasonal plants (directly or indirectly).

C) The amount of CO2 humans respire over this time is too small to make a difference.

D) Incorrect; the increase in human respiration is partially responsible for the rise in atmospheric CO2.

E) None of the above

Answer 1

E) None of the above

In our respiration process, we just expel the CO2 portion of the air what we take during breathing. While breathing we take air from the atmosphere, our body just keeps the oxygen from that air and the rest of the things get expelled out. So simply we are taking from the air and returning back to it, we are not adding any extra things to it. That's why our respiration is not concerned with global warming.