Why are CO2 levels in the atmosphere higher during the day than during the night?
Answer Tropical rainforests during the day absorb atmospheric CO2 and emit oxygen. During the night that same rainforest breathes in oxygen and breathes out carbon dioxide. A rainforest, in a twenty four hour period is therefore greenhouse neutral. (In fact it is worse than neutral as some of the absorbed carbon dioxide is converted to first plant life, then second forest floor litter and thirdly the litter rots and forms methane gas that drifts up into the surrounding air. Methane is twenty times more deadly a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide itself.
