Comments on: The Ins and Outs of the Global Carbon Cycle http://scienceprogress.org/2008/12/the-ins-and-outs-of-the-global-carbon-cycle/ Tue, 13 Sep 2011 13:59:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Michael F. Sarabia http://scienceprogress.org/2008/12/the-ins-and-outs-of-the-global-carbon-cycle/comment-page-1/#comment-3778 Michael F. Sarabia Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:33:07 +0000 http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/12/the-ins-and-outs-of-the-global-carbon-cycle/#comment-3778 The permafrost melting boundary in Russia, and Alaska, is moving SOUTH, of course! The permafrost melting boundary in Russia, and Alaska, is moving SOUTH, of course!

]]> By: Michael F. Sarabia http://scienceprogress.org/2008/12/the-ins-and-outs-of-the-global-carbon-cycle/comment-page-1/#comment-3777 Michael F. Sarabia Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:27:38 +0000 http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/12/the-ins-and-outs-of-the-global-carbon-cycle/#comment-3777 Very clear and informative article. I learnt much, thanks. The astonishing part to me, this author and others, is that there are so many that still do not understand that CO2 started to reach the atmosphere coincident and because of the coal and, later, the oil burnt since the Industrial Revolution that started around 1850. Plots of CO2 concentration over the years clearly and dramatically show it. Yes, we all know there is data of previous times with high CO2 concentrations in the air, derived from ice core samples collected in Greenland and the South Pole. Snow flakes trap air that is solidified by the pressure of many centuries of snow on top. Scientists trap the air and determine its composition at each level to plot the local increase of CO2 over time. But, those irregular increases in CO2 are said to be the result of a volcano with lava that travelled through coal layers and brings it out and burns it. Not all volcanoes do that. But, the CO2 concentration in the air depends, as well described in the article, depends not only on sources of CO2 but sinks that absorb CO2. One sink is the ocean and the other is vegetation that absorbs CO2, buries the Carbon and release the Oxygen and mankind survives. We could have known all this long ago and predict that, in time, the Oceans will reach their CO2 saturation level and will take no more. It seems we just reached this point, in 2006, measurements in the Antarctic Ocean showed that it was at the CO2 saturation point, for the first time, determined from a surface sample. In time, ocean circulation and CO2 absorption will lower the saturation level depth and increase the ocean volume at saturation. We are not there yet. On land, deforestation is the major threat but forest fires are increasing and, as the trend continues, the forest fires will release the Carbon from the soil buried by tees and vegetation (like it was done eons ago and formed oil fields). The CO2 Source from wild fires, in time, will exceed the CO2 absorved by trees and vegations. As the amount of living trees and vegetaion is reduced, the forest will become Net contributors of CO2. This "Tipping Point" has not been reached. The worst is yet to come: Gigatons of frozen Methane are exist at the bottom of the ocean, which is a good reason to be concerned about the Ocean temperature. Methane is said to be about 20 times worse than CO2 in its Global Warming effect. And, a few months ago, a scientist in Siberia, in a part already affected by Global Warming found that the permafrost soil is melting and its melting boundary is moving North. That was bad but expected the worst part was that he discovered a bacteria that survives defrosting and "eats" organic matter and produces much Methane. Shortly after this was published, a similar finding was made in Alaska. It seems as if the melting of the permafrost will speed up the Global Warming process. Very clear and informative article. I learnt much, thanks.
The astonishing part to me, this author and others, is that there are so many that still do not understand that CO2 started to reach the atmosphere coincident and because of the coal and, later, the oil burnt since the Industrial Revolution that started around 1850. Plots of CO2 concentration over the years clearly and dramatically show it.
Yes, we all know there is data of previous times with high CO2 concentrations in the air, derived from ice core samples collected in Greenland and the South Pole.
Snow flakes trap air that is solidified by the pressure of many centuries of snow on top. Scientists trap the air and determine its composition at each level to plot the local increase of CO2 over time.
But, those irregular increases in CO2 are said to be the result of a volcano with lava that travelled through coal layers and brings it out and burns it. Not all volcanoes do that.
But, the CO2 concentration in the air depends, as well described in the article, depends not only on sources of CO2 but sinks that absorb CO2.
One sink is the ocean and the other is vegetation that absorbs CO2, buries the Carbon and release the Oxygen and mankind survives.
We could have known all this long ago and predict that, in time, the Oceans will reach their CO2 saturation level and will take no more. It seems we just reached this point, in 2006, measurements in the Antarctic Ocean showed that it was at the CO2 saturation point, for the first time, determined from a surface sample. In time, ocean circulation and CO2 absorption will lower the saturation level depth and increase the ocean volume at saturation. We are not there yet.

On land, deforestation is the major threat but forest fires are increasing and, as the trend continues, the forest fires will release the Carbon from the soil buried by tees and vegetation (like it was done eons ago and formed oil fields).
The CO2 Source from wild fires, in time, will exceed the CO2 absorved by trees and vegations. As the amount of living trees and vegetaion is reduced, the forest will become Net contributors of CO2. This “Tipping Point” has not been reached.
The worst is yet to come: Gigatons of frozen Methane are exist at the bottom of the ocean, which is a good reason to be concerned about the Ocean temperature. Methane is said to be about 20 times worse than CO2 in its Global Warming effect.
And, a few months ago, a scientist in Siberia, in a part already affected by Global Warming found that the permafrost soil is melting and its melting boundary is moving North. That was bad but expected the worst part was that he discovered a bacteria that survives defrosting and “eats” organic matter and produces much Methane. Shortly after this was published, a similar finding was made in Alaska. It seems as if the melting of the permafrost will speed up the Global Warming process.

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