Assess the impacts of natural changes to the carbon cycle up on life on earth? (9 marks)
Natural changes to the carbon cycle include wildfires and volcanic activity.
One natural change is wildfires, which are uncontrolled rule fires. This leads to the combustion of Tinder dry vegetation, like the Alberta wildfire in 2016, leading to millions of tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Therefore, and increasing the magnitude of CO2 in the atmosphere will lead to an increase in solar radiation being trapped with us higher temperatures. As a result, this will exacerbate the rates of the melting of the polar ice caps. Therefore, an increase in the volume of freshwater entering global oceans, leading to a eustatic sea level rise. This can have negative consequences on life on earth like the innovation of archipelagos like Kiribati. They are experiencing a 9-millimetre sea level rise, which has inundated prime agricultural land, leading to the president having to grow food on a Fijian island purchased in 2014.
Another natural change is volcanic activity. Depending on the size of the eruption, will lead to ash and debris to be released into the atmosphere. This ash will rise into the stratosphere, which will reduce the albedo effect, leading to incoming solar radiation to be reflected away. This will lead to a full in surface temperatures. This can be evidenced with the 1816 Mount Tambora’s eruption, which led to the year without summer. A global effect, which led to lower food yields and subsequent food shortages.
Overall, natural changes though on their own are not enough to have negative effects on human life, by the human interventions which exacerbate their natural effects, leading to negative impacts for life on earth.