Mar
Where has all the carbon gone?
Here’s a different twist on carbon from Air Vent today. Guest author DeWitt Payne write:
Carbon is going missing. We know to a reasonable approximation how much carbon is being emitted to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel and land use changes. But the concentration in the atmosphere isn’t going up as fast as expected. Where is it going and what will be the long term effect? I don’t have the answer, but I’ve learned some things by looking at the data that weren’t obvious in relation to what I’ve previously read about the carbon cycle. This is important, because any strategy for stabilization of atmospheric CO2 is completely dependent on our understanding of the carbon cycle.
Read it all: Where Has All the Carbon Gone? « the Air Vent.
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- How ‘Climategate’ Marks the Maturing of a New Science Movement, Part I
- What’s New? Harpooning whales speeds up global warming
It is actually a good question. Not mysterious, of course, but good. Carbon DOES disappear, and is practically unrecoverable. Only the part that is assimilated through photosynthesis can be brought back into atmosphere to support the life cycle. But every year significant amount of carbon is lost to carbonate deposits in the ocean floor. The process goes on ever since oxygen appeared in the air, and by now about hundred thousand gigatons are lost to sediments, never to re-enter life cycle again. For comparison: there is only 750 gigatons of carbon in the air. With decreased carbon presence there is less food for plants, lifeforms are getting smaller, Earth is getting colder.