Transcript: The stability of the Earth’s atmosphere over billions of years has been impacted in part by the carbon dioxide cycle which has acted as a thermostat to regulate the temperature of the Earth, even over time spans when the Sun was changing its brightness or the amount of tectonic activity was varying. The basic chemical principle is that the rate at which carbonates form depend on temperature, and carbonates from faster when it’s hotter. Thus when the temperature increases, the rate of carbonate formation increases which means the rate at which they dissolve in the oceans increase, and the dissolution of carbon dioxide in the oceans removes it from the atmosphere thereby lowering the greenhouse effect which causes the temperature to fall. On the other hand, if the temperature of the Earth is reduced for any reason, the rate of carbonate formation also falls as does the rate of its dissolution in ocean water, which leads to more greenhouse gas, which leads to a higher temperature. Thus, the process is self-regulating.