The Carbon Cycle: The Backbone of Life 2003
Distributed by Chip Taylor Communications, 2 East View Drive, Derry, NH 03038-4812; 800-876-CHIP (2447)
Produced by Chip Taylor Communications
Director n/a
VHS, color, 13 min.
Jr. High - Jr. College
Environmental Studies, Biology
Date Entered: 08/09/2005
Reviewed by Buzz Haughton, Shields Library, University of California at DavisThis video is part of Chip Taylor Communication’s Planet Under Pressure Series. The narrator reviews, with much colorful footage from the natural world, how carbon is responsible for life. He further outlines the complete dependence of animal life upon plant life, i.e. how plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and return oxygen to it, thereby providing animals with breathable oxygen as well as nutrition when plants are used as food sources. The two segments that deal with the carbon cycle in biology and geology are Cycles 1 and 2.
Cycle 3, Out of Kilter, summarizes how man and his technology have resulted in the disruption of the carbon cycle balance by the burning of fossil fuels and a steady and continuous heating of the earth’s environment since the Industrial Revolution. While not proposing any solution to this menacing problem, the film poses good questions and should stimulate discussion among students without expecting them to have a detailed knowledge of biology.