Carbon Dioxide Sequestration A Solution to a Global Problem

Human and industrial development over the past hundred years has led to a huge increase in fossil fuel consumption and CO 2 emissions, causing a dramatic increase in atmospheric CO 2 concentration. This increased CO 2 is believed to be responsible for a significant rise in global temperature over the past several decades. Global-scale climate modeling suggests that the temperature increase will continue, at least over the next few hundred years, leading to glacial melting and rising sea levels. Increased atmospheric CO 2 also leads to ocean acidification, which will have drastic consequences for marine ecosystems. In an attempt to solve these problems, many have proposed the large-scale sequestration of CO 2 from our atmosphere. This introductory article presents a summary of some of the evidence linking increasing atmospheric CO 2 concentration to global warming and ocean acidification and our efforts to stem this rise though CO 2 sequestration.