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hi my name is tom trager and i'm a high

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school or sciences teacher we're

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currently learning about climate change

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in my class climate change is part of a

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complex process we learn the carbon is

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naturally released into the atmosphere

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and then absorb over again and again and

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we also learn how human activity can

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upset this down I'm finding that the

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more I teach my students about climate

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change the more questions they have why

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is carbon dioxide so important carbon

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dioxide is a major greenhouse gas and is

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argued to be a leading contributor to

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global climate change and it's primarily

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coming from human activities some of

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those human activities that are emitting

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carbon dioxide into our atmosphere

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include the burning of fossil fuels

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because of this we've been building up

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the concentrations of this gas in our

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atmosphere very very rapidly over the

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last 50 or so years how much carbon

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dioxide are we actually putting into the

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atmosphere every year human activity is

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responsible for approximately eight

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billion metric tons of carbon being

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released into the atmosphere just what

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is a metric ton of carbon one ton of

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carbon would be the equivalent of say a

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small convertible sports car okay now

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eight billion of those are put into the

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atmosphere every year that's more than

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one sports car or one ton of carbon

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being put into the atmosphere for every

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man woman and child living on the earth

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today so where is all that carbon going

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approximately half of the carbon dioxide

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that's emitted by human activities

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remains in the atmosphere the other half

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of that carbon dioxide is disappearing

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it's being absorbed by the oceans and by

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the terrestrial biosphere but we don't

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know where it's being absorbed how are

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you gonna figure out where all that

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carbon dioxide is going the orbiting

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carbon Observatory is really NASA's

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first truly dedicated mission for

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measuring co2 in the atmosphere

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the satellite then will allow us to find

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out where the carbon dioxide is coming

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from where it's being produced and

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emitted into the atmosphere and where

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it's being reabsorbed into land plants

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and into the oceans the satellite brings

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back hundreds of thousands of

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measurements per day and so by making so

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many more measurements over much more of

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the surface of the earth we can increase

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our understanding just by overwhelming

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the problem with more data well why is

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it important that we know exactly where

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all the carbon dioxide is going one of

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the fundamental goals for the orbiting

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carbon Observatory is to obtain the

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necessary information and data so that

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policymakers not just here in the United

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States but throughout the world can make

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better informed decisions bo co

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measurements could give us an indication

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of how much longer we can burn fossil

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fuels at the rate that we're bringing

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them now how much more co2 we can add to

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our atmosphere before it does produce

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climate changes that are unacceptable

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but we need the measurements that

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spacecraft like ocl will make in order

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to understand the processes controlling

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the rate of buildup of carbon dioxide in

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our atmosphere so that we can understand