You hear about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, a contributor to global warming eventually, perhaps. NASA has created a live action map posted by Yahoo News that shows the production and peregrinations of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere over the period of a year.
You owe it to yourself to go watch it. First, almost all CO2 is produced and circulates in the northern hemisphere, not much gets south of the equator. Second, and most interesting to me, the production drops off dramatically in the warm months, and is heaviest in the cold months. Third, as new production drops off in spring, atmospheric concentrations are depicted as declining over the summer, as Gaia soaks up the CO2 produced the prior winter.
Since most CO2 is produced in winter, it appears it is the result of (a) keeping warm, and (b) generating electricity for light through the long nights. That suggests auto exhaust - relatively constant year round - is not a major contributor ... who knew?
Also, I wonder if northern CO2 accounts for the ice melting in the Arctic while ice is still forming in the Antarctic?
