Friday, Jul 24, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ ↗
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SCIENCE

The Claim

Animals, plants, and microbes release carbon dioxide through respiration.

Verified by Lenz ·

The Short Version

The statement matches established biology. Animals, plants, and microbes all can release carbon dioxide as part of cellular respiration, and major scientific sources describe this as a standard component of the carbon cycle. The omitted nuances about photosynthesis in plants and metabolic diversity in microbes do not materially change the claim’s core meaning.

Caveats

  • Plants also absorb CO2 through photosynthesis, so their net effect on atmospheric CO2 can differ from their respiratory CO2 release.
  • Microbes are metabolically diverse; some pathways, especially under anaerobic conditions, do not produce CO2 in the same way or as the main end product.
  • The claim concerns respiration specifically, not all carbon release from decomposition or other biological processes.

The Receipts

  1. Plant Respiration and Elevated Atmospheric CO2 Concentration

    PubMed Central

  2. DOE Explains...the Carbon Cycle

    U.S. Department of Energy

  3. The Carbon Cycle

    NASA Earth Observatory

  4. The role of soil microbes in the global carbon cycle

    Proceedings of the Royal Society B (via PubMed Central)

  5. Respiration of the terrestrial biosphere: Carbon balance, controls, and future responses

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)

  6. Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis – Chapter 5: Global Carbon and other Biogeochemical Cycles and Feedbacks

    IPCC

  7. Plants release more carbon dioxide into atmosphere than expected

    The Australian National University

  8. Cellular respiration introduction | Biology

    Khan Academy

  9. Sources of Carbon Dioxide

    Florida Atlantic University / NASA CES

  10. How Plants Breathe and Exchange Gases

    Royal Horticultural Society

+ 6 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

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