Carbon Dioxide is a critical factor
Without subduction and water, the
atmosphere and climate on the Earth would have been very different. A
little more conversion of CO2 to rock, or lack of subduction and vulcanism, and we would have “snowball
Earth”. Less conversion could make us more like Venus (human greenhouse gases not
really enough for that). Life
has played an important role by using CO2 in plant respiration and production of shells which
sink to the ocean bottom.