Maia

Maia
goddess of flowers

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Mankind's legacy for a thousand years

Why does atmospheric levels of Carbon dioxide lag behind atmospheric lower troposphere temperature over the past 400,000 years? Consider the Carbon cycle and the Solar cycles, therein lies a link with the life processes of the planet. The climate is definitely warming with a sharp rise about 1910. Is it rising because of recent inputs of CO2 to the atmosphere? If Co2 lags temp rise I can not see a direct cause. But it does seem clear that CO2 is an indicator of pollution and anthropogenic climate change. Its rise along with temp can only be caused by man’s intervention into the ecosystem. If you look at the past century and the last 10,000 years you will discover the pattern. Between warming and cooling peaks and troughs, there is about 800 years. So this indicates soil carbon loss to the atmosphere where it precipitates with rainfall after less than a hundred years and the Ocean where it is stored for hundreds of years. You could interpret this as an explanation for carbon dioxide as a driver but there is another explanation. Carbon loss from the soil means that mankind has done something drastic to alter the environment. This would usually entail the downfall of civilization as resources are in short supply. In terms of the environment the loss of carbon from the soil indicates that deforestation is the cause with desertification following. What happens when a vast tract of forest is cut down to support the building of cities and ships? The ground is bare of most vegetation and heterotrphic bacteria eat the remaining carbon in the soil. The soil is then oxidized by the action of the Sun’s radiation creating oxisols. What does this do to the temperature over the land? Without the cover of forests and clouds, temperatures soar during the day like in a desert from the Equator to mid latitudes where mankind lives. Carbon dioxide and water vapor rise from the bare ground at an increasing rate as the temperature rises. This continues until the soil is exhausted of carbon from the top few inches and the soil is oxidized and infertile. So Carbon dioxide does not cause the temperature rise. It is caused by the denuding of the soil by mankind’s intervention. Why is there a sharp rise in temperature in the past 100 years? Is it because of industrial pollution from the use of fossil fuels? Again there will be a lag phase of hundreds of years between carbon dioxide levels and temperature rise. There can certainly be regional effects such as smog and inversions creating heat islands but overall most of the carbon dioxide and water vapor will escape into the atmosphere and streams to the Ocean. Most of the heat in the gas will escape into outer space but some will heat up clouds in the troposphere. The majority of the heat from carbon loss will be stored in the Ocean or dissipate on the surface depending on sea surface temperatures, phytoplankton populations, wind currents etc. So why was there a sharp rise around the turn from the 19th to the 20th century? I would go back in time 800 to 1000 years and look at what mankind was doing then. What we do today will affect people 800 years from now.

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