For billions of years, the earth has been at an equilibrium when it comes to the relationship between the ocean, atmosphere, and terrestrial systems. However, by human acts of fossil fuel burning and deforestation, increasingly amounts of carbon have been escaping into the atmosphere and altering the cycle. Of course climate change hasn't just started happening, but before the industrial world started booming, the climate and global carbon cycle was driven by naturally occurring events such as volcanoes, sea floor rifting, and meteorite impacts (Climate Change & the Carbon Cycle). So you may be wondering where these fossil fuels are coming from in the first place. Fossil Fuels are remains of living organisms that have always been buried deep in the sea floor and in terrestrial environments until humans started disrupting those areas and stirring up the fossil fuels into the atmosphere. Fossil fuels enter the atmosphere in forms such as carbon dioxide and methane which are called greenhouse gasses. These gasses affect the movement of the oceans and also warm the climate.
The carbon cycle is a complex exchange of carbon throughout the land and atmosphere, but as the picture shows, fossil fuels, fires, and animal respiration and waste are all contributors to pushing carbon into the atmosphere.
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