by J. Russ

Created on: August 13, 2009

Take your favorite carbonated beverage, pour it into a pan, and heat it. What happens? The dissolved carbon dioxide comes out of solution and is released into the atmosphere. The amount of CO2 that water can hold decreases rapidly with increasing temperature.

I have been told that the amount of carbon dioxide in the Oceans is between 50 and 100 times greater then in our atmosphere. Some of our oceans actually have lakes of liquid CO2 at their bottom.

When the sun increased in temperature, all eight planets got warmer. When the oceans warmed, they released large quantities of CO2, as well as additional water vapor into the atmosphere. H2O & CO2 are the two major Global Warming Gases. If you look closely at the charts showing global temperature and CO2 as a function of time, you will see that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases after the Earth and its oceans have increased in temperature.

Burning hydrocarbons does release both H2O & CO2 into the atmosphere, but the amount released from power plants and vehicles is much less than the amount released by nature1. Major sources of CO2 include volcanoes, forest fires, coal mines on fire2, insect respiration, mammal respiration [including man], and then power plants and vehicles.

It should be noted that H2O is a much more effective greenhouse gas because it can be as much as 4% of the atmosphere, whereas CO2 is less then 0.04%, and because H2O has a much wider absorption spectra then CO2. Just compare the range in day-night temperature of a desert and a rain forest to understand how effective H2O is.

Both H2O & CO2 are essential for plant growth. Assuming good soil, , water and sunlight, a major limitation of plant growth is the lack of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I have heard that plants in the ocean where there is plenty of minerals, water and carbon dioxide, can grow as much as a foot a day. The major effect of the increase to almost 0.04% CO2 in the atmosphere is an increase in the growth rate of crops, forests and other vegetation. It amazes me that plants can use the almost 0.04% carbon dioxide to make food and release the oxygen into an atmosphere that is 21% O2.

But before you get the wrong impression, I am for the reduction in the wasteful use of fuel. Not because I am worried about CO2, but because I am worried about running out of our limited supply of fuel. For this reason, I am an advocate for using small cars with fully inflated tires, and

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>