Re: Carbon Dioxide Emissions May Harm Ocean Life

From: Ian St. John (istjohn_at_noemail.ca)
Date: 07/20/04 

Date: Mon, 19 Jul 2004 22:49:26 -0400

Dan Bloomquist wrote:
> Ian St. John wrote:
>> Captain Compassion wrote:
>>
>>> .8% of all CO2 is from Fossil fuel burning, cement production. 99.2%
>>> is from good ole mother earth.
>>
>> What matters is the level of CO2
>> in the atmosphere and that has increased by about 33% due to fossil
>> fuels.
>
> No, scientist are fairly confident that we are burdening the carbon
> cycle. And a lot of that burden is likely coming from deforestation.
> It does no good to claim a truth in science, truth doesn't exist in
> science. Observations do:

Yes. And the observation is that we are putting X gigatons of carbon in the
air from fossil fuels each year where about X/2 remains in the air the next
year. We know that this increase is coming from the fossil fuels due to
isotopic composition. The 'old' carbon from stored hydrocarbons are combiend
with 'new' oxygen. This is distinctive and cannot be confused with 'new
carbon/new oxygen' from burning plant matter.

>
> "Since pre-industrial times, the atmospheric concentration of carbon
> dioxide has increased by 31 percent. Over the same period, atmospheric
> methane has risen by 151 percent, mostly from agricultural activities
> like growing rice and raising cattle." UCSUSA

I said nothing about Methane and other GHGs not increasing as well. The
thread was specifically on CO2.

>
> Troubling is the impact of moving the permafrost line back on the
> northern continents. There is an enormous store of CO2, (and I don't
> know about methane there).

Boreholes looking for the assumed 'permafrost methane hydrates' have come up
dry where theory says they should have found it. This suggests that claims
of large values of methane hydrates in the permafrost are unproven
hypothesis as yet.

> If we are looking at the potential of
> positive feedback from this region, it may already be to late to stop
> major climatic change.

You are right in terms that the stable 'sopping up' of half the CO2
emissions could stop at any moment and be replace by a large positive
feedback. It has happened in the Paleoclimate record and that is a scary
thing for those that believe ( as they pass the second floor on their way
down ) "so far, so good".

>
> Best, Dan.

Relevant Pages

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  • comments guys
    ... carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas - a minor one. ... every 100,000 molecules of atmosphere, every five years. ... routinely transfers 40 times as much CO2, and 24,000 times as much water ... the human source represents only 3% the size of the ...
    (uk.sci.weather)