Re: Carbon footprint questions

Antares 531 wrote:

On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 09:57:27 -0800, "Paul Hovnanian P.E."
<paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Antares 531 wrote:

On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:45:28 -0800, "Paul Hovnanian P.E."
<paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Occidental wrote:

On Dec 12, 9:20 pm, "Paul Hovnanian P.E." <p...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
(snip)

This might be termed "industrial sequestration"; I was thinking of the
more natural kind - eg if a desert area is converted to grassland or
cornfields, then, although the carbon in the plant material is
constantly being recycled via consumption by animals, or natural death
and decay, it is constantly being replaced by new growth, so that on
aggregate a certain amount of carbon is permanently removed from the
atmosphere. But not much of course.

Yep. You'll get one credit for the new growth. Once the
grassland/forest/whatever is mature, its carbon neutral.

I have a question, here. Before humans began using campfires, the
entire earth should have been "carbon neutral." How, then, did the
carbon balance in the atmosphere remain sufficient to sustain life and
at the same time supply carbon for all the fossil fuels we are now
exploiting? Gordon

Back a few billion years ago, the earth's atmosphere contained mainly
CO2 and very little molecular oxygen. Cyanobacteria, one of the earliest
life forms, sequestered that CO2 and the remains, once buried, provided
the raw materials upon which most crude oil is based. As the oxygen
content of the atmosphere increased, the global rate of CO2 fixation by
biological processes has slowed down dramatically.

This I really do not understand. As the oxygen content of the
atmosphere increased, animal life expanded and this should be causing
a significant increase in CO2 fixation. Of course plant life also
expanded, and the two are roughly balance in keeping the atmospheric
CO2 level within acceptable limits. Gordon

In more modern times, some plant life buried in peat bogs and the like
have been converted to coal deposits.

These processes continue today, but at much slower rates and in fewer
areas. Take your stereotypical forest. The accumulation of dead
biological material (the topsoil) is not very thick. Maybe a few feet,
or as little as a few inches deep. And it doesn't accumulate very fast,
if at all. That's the sign of a carbon neutral ecosystem.

This I agree with entirely, but I still have questions about the deep
ocean's roll in this atmospheric CO2 balance process. What keeps the
deep oceans from sequestering all or nearly all the available
atmospheric carbon? Gordon

Sequestering it in what form? Typically, its some sort of plant life
that does the job and, despite some deep living forms, most of the
plants live near the surface. And they get eaten there as well.

Absent animal life, the dying plants would probably sink (as they did
billions of years ago). But now, animals keep dragging them back to the
surface.

You know what they say about water: Water created humans to carry it
uphill.

--
Paul Hovnanian paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Have gnu, will travel.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Carbon footprint questions
    ... aggregate a certain amount of carbon is permanently removed from the ... carbon balance in the atmosphere remain sufficient to sustain life and ... CO2 and very little molecular oxygen. ... life forms, sequestered that CO2 and the remains, once buried, provided ...
    (rec.org.mensa)
  • Re: www.gramalkin.com - Sidereal astrology, tarot reader and sidereal astrologer (v1-23.6)
    ... >>> Only if you are assuming a carbon based lifeform.. ... carbon in the atmosphere then there is life there. ... Hence the Huh? ...
    (uk.rec.sheds)
  • Re: Snowball Earth at 2.3 gya
    ... > as potent as CO2), keeping water in liquid form at this time of lower ... But that first primary Earth atmosphere of H2, methane, and ammonia ... Oxygenic photosynthesis probably did not arise ... > carbon dioxide resulted; had it not been for life locking-up CO2, ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: "The Scarcity of Life Bearing Planets"
    ... life is very common in the universe as you and I are ... If an Earth sized planet existed ... too small and too close to the Sun to have prevented its atmosphere, ... Atmospheric gases which impacted the planet ...
    (sci.physics.fusion)
  • The last green taboo: =?windows-1252?Q?=91engineering=92_the_?= =?windows-1252?Q?planet_?=
    ... They are like a chef who realises she has accidentally put in too much cayenne, so reaches for lashings of oregano to balance it out, only this time, the recipe is the atmosphere of the planet earth. ... At the moment, the oceans are, along with the rainforests, the most effective natural mechanism for taking carbon out of the atmosphere. ...
    (uk.people.support.depression)
Loading