The Importance of Carbon!
Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best
Friend!
What is Carbon?
• Carbon is a naturally occurring
element, and creates the hardest
known materials on Earth
• It is found on the periodic table,
atomic number 6
• Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a
product of carbon and is a
pollutant
Little Known Facts?
• Carbon creates the hardest
mineral on Earth
• That Mineral is a diamond
• Carbon forms coal which
hides that beautiful gem
• Diamonds can only be cut
by other carbon based
diamond drills!
What is the Carbon Cycle?
• Matter that is used over and over again takes
up space, has mass, and has a repeating cycle.
• The movement of carbon from the
environment into living things and back to
the environment
– English translation…. The carbon cycle is similar
to the water cycle in that it is on-going.
Carbon Cycle
• Carbon enters an
ecosystem (all living
things live in some kind
of ecosystem) when
living things (plants,
humans, and animals)
take in carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere .
• Plants do this during
photosynthesis
Fossil Fuels
Organic substances such
as coal, oil, and natural
gas that is used as an
energy source and is
formed from the remains
of organisms (former
living things) that lived
many years ago.
Fossil Fuels are a
nonrenewable resource
because they were
formed from the remains
of plant and animal
matter from many years
ago.
Once they are gone, they
are gone forever!
Transpiration
The process of
evaporation
from plants.
Basically, plants
sweating.
Transpiration
Environmental factors
that can affect
transpiration:
Light
Temperature
Humidity
Wind
Soil
Water
Consumers
• Heterotrophs
• Do not create
their own food.
• Eat plants and
other animals to
obtain energy
Why do we need Carbon?
• Carbon is essential to all living things because all
living things have tiny molecules of carbon living
inside
• When we breathe we inhale oxygen to survive, our
bodies produce carbon dioxide, and it is exhaled
from our lungs.
• Just breathing may cause the atmosphere to hold
heat.
So the next time your teacher says stop talking
so much…do it for the environment!
Carbon Cycle
Global Warming
• Global warming is a theory! It
continues to change every year.
• Global warming- The theory
that the temperature of the
Earth is rising and causing
negative events worldwide.
• Greenhouse Effect- The earth is
releasing more carbon than we
are using, causing excessive
amounts of carbon molecules in
the atmosphere. Carbon
molecules in the atmosphere
trap heat from the sun.
Summary
• When we burn fossil fuels we add to the
seemingly endless supply of carbon in the
atmosphere.
• Carbon dioxide causes the atmosphere to
hold heat.
• Warmer atmosphere causes the
temperatures of the land and oceans to rise.
Vocabulary Terms
• Photosynthesis- the process plants use to take carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere and make energy; in the
carbon cycle plants use carbon dioxide from the air to
make sugars
• Erosion – the wearing away of top soil by wind or
water
• Decomposition – the breakdown of dead materials
into carbon dioxide and water
• Respiration – the exchange of gases by living things.
Breathing out carbon dioxide, breathing in oxygen.
• Fossil Fuels – come from buried remains of long-dead
organisms; to be burned for energy
Vocabulary Terms
• Carbon cycle – the movement of carbon from the
environment into living things and back to the
environment; Life exists because carbon can be cycled
within the Earth and the atmosphere
• Combustion- the process of burning, (fossil fuels such
as natural gas, coal or petroleum
• Transpiration- the process in which some water within
plants evaporates back into the atmosphere. (Plant
sweat)
• Nitrogen – a type of gas that has neither smell nor
color that is a large part of the atmosphere and the air
we breathe
• Decompose – the break down of organic materials