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This figure,
from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides an
overview and indicates it’s magnitude. It is deemed the “natural”
carbon cycle.
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Carbon is the
common accounting currency of the materials involved. Carbon stores are shown
on these figures in billions of tonnes. Annual flows are indicated with arrows.
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The atmosphere
contains 730 billion tonnes of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide. Living
plants contain about 500 billion tonnes of carbon. Soils store about 1500 billion tonnes. Fossil fuel stores are around 3000 billion
tonnes. Humongous amounts of carbon are dissolved in the ocean and stored in
rocks.
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About 120
billion tonnes of carbon is cycled between the land and the atmosphere
annually thanks to plants and photosynthesis.
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Similar
processes take place in the ocean, and carbon dioxide is exchanged with the
atmosphere.
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