Human's have added quite a bit of CO2 into the atmosphere and this represents an external force that is disturbing the natural cycles, which is why we see CO2 levels jumping up above the upper control limits over the last 800,000 years (3 sigma above the mean).
CO2 is utilized by plants and is a CRITICAL COMPONENT of their life cycle. And the fact that the earth was GREENER 10,000 years ago, one has to ask the question of what has changed to cause the desertification in many areas of the planet?
CO2 levels SHOULD BE SELF-BALANCING since it is a critical component for plants. The more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more botanical life should be flourishing in such a CO2 rich environment.
Thus, we need to ask ourselves why botanical life is NOT absorbing this excess CO2?? What conditions are lacking that prevent plants from flourishing in such a CO2 rich environment?
I've already explained the lack of nutrients in the oceans as a critical factor. But other factors affect terrestrial plant life as well, including deforestation, desertification.. etc.
Those are what we should be focusing upon. The earth ONCE sequestered all that atmospheric CO2 and eventually converted it into fossil fuels. We need to focus on using such methods again to balance out the CO2 cycle.
One other thing I've mentioned before is using algae based bio-fuels to create a closed CO2 cycle. This has the advantage of not competing with human food staples, providing protein for farm animals, and is readily utilized in existing vehicles. It's also mass-producible under the right conditions, even in an Urban environment.
You look at how much CO2 is being produced by humans, and I look at why existing botanical life seems unable to flourish when such a critical component is widely available.
Hawk |
