Re: article in latest sci american

From: Jo Schaper (joschapern4ospam_at_2socketdot.no5net)
Date: 02/13/05 

Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 11:07:26 -0600

Joe Zorzin wrote:
> The most recent Scientific American (just got it yesterday) has an article
> which says that agriculture and deforestation of the past several thousand
> years have contributed to global warming and countered what otherwise would
> have been slowly lowering temperatures that would have brought us to the
> brink of another ice age. I'm no scientist, but this sounds like a
> rationalization for global warming.

Depends what you mean by 'rationalization'. Trees and forests are a
great force for the sequestration of CO2. Grasses (and much agriculture
are grasses) do so on a much smaller scale. Large scale plowing breaks
up the CO2 reservoir in the upper levels of the soil. Animals produce
CO2. Now, I'm not sure how factory farming of cattle, pigs and chickens
and the existence of excess humans compares in CO2/methane production
when balanced against the slaughter of bison and oher large animals, but
it could very well be a factor. Hydrocarbon mining (just bringing
methane, oil and other hydrocarbons to surface from below ground) also
increases surficial CO2 levels, long before it is burned as fuel.

Therefore, deforestation reduces the rate of CO2 sequestration, repeated
plowing releases CO2, and animal and excess people (not talking about
their industrialization, just breathing) *might* increase net CO2
production. While this is rational, (assuming the people have numbers to
back up their claims), I don't see how it is 'rationalization'.

There actually is a fair amount of research going into CO2 sequestration
strategies by the US DOE.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: article in latest sci american
    ... Large scale plowing breaks ... >> up the CO2 reservoir in the upper levels of the soil. ... I don't see how it is 'rationalization'. ... medical science. ...
    (sci.geo.geology)
  • Re: article in latest sci american
    ... >> years have contributed to global warming and countered what otherwise would ... > Depends what you mean by 'rationalization'. ... > up the CO2 reservoir in the upper levels of the soil. ... Since life has certain inarguable qualities such as resilience ...
    (sci.geo.geology)
  • Re: OT: Climate Change
    ... If CO2 really does cause global warming and the feedback effect its ... proponents talk about really does exist then even if we stopped all man ... that's not a rationalization - it's merely a statement of fact. ...
    (sci.electronics.design)
  • Re: Perplexed about climate change
    ... Surely for CO2 the only thing ... burning fossil fuels it does seem sensible to look for alternatives even ... Indeed for most of the time agriculture ... > gatherers could not compete, economically or militarily, and their hunting ...
    (uk.politics.misc)
  • Re: The definitive CO2 thread....
    ... agriculture from clearances contributed vast amounts of atmospheric CO2 and ... atmosphere and hole 45% of the load) is verified and having an effect. ... Given the thermal inertia of large volumes of ice and water (most of the ... merely increase liquid water but my point was the acidifying effect of CO2 ...
    (uk.business.agriculture)