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Sergio Ramazzotti

On a beach in Azerbaijan's capital of Baku, children play within view of abandoned oil rigs stranded on the Caspian Sea. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates that fossil fuel extraction, refining, and transport account for at least 10 percent of annual global emissions.

Producing crops and raising livestock is a large source of carbon dioxide. Globally, the food sector is responsible for a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

At a mountain observatory near Modena, Italy, the country's National Research Council and Air Force monitor air quality daily, observing the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have risen 47 percent since the Industrial Revolution.

Scientists at labs owned by Eni, an Italian oil company, experiment with ways to make photosynthesis—and uptake of carbon dioxide—more efficient by exposing microalgae to different wavelengths. Engineer Vasco Di Castro, seen here, experiments with plant materials that could be used as fuel or in cosmetics.

At Papa Giovanni XXIII Hospital in Bergamo, Italy, Dr. Paolo Bertoli and his team perform a laparoscopy. Medical-grade carbon dioxide is used to dilate the abdominal cavity. CO2 is used primarily because it is an inert gas, therefore not at risk of combustion in the presence of electrical charges, from tools like an electric scalpel.

Freediving athlete Massimiliano Pampaloni trains to keep his diaphragmatic contractions under control to help prevent hypercapnia, a buildup of carbon dioxide in the body as a result of too little breathing. Carbon dioxide is a product of the body’s metabolism and is normally expelled through the lungs.

In Milan, firefighter illustrates how carbon dioxide compressed into a fire extinguisher is used to squelch gas-powered flames.

Locatelli Meccanica is an Italian company that specializes in the production of dry ice, the solid form of carbon dioxide.

Acid rain results from a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The result is corrosive precipitation that can corrode stone or, in the case of this statue in Milan, bronze.

While activities such as producing oil, gas, and coal produce large quantities of greenhouse gasses, wasted food rotting in landfills also creates pollution. Landfills are particularly potent sources of methane, a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide.