Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (753050)

11/16/2013 12:01:17 AM

From: mel221

Read Replies (2) | Respond to of 1578012

>> That's a silly statement to make given that we'll never reach 100% sequestered carbon.

A reasonable statement. But consider the history of the planet. Right now, most of the planet's carbon is already sequestered (750 GT / 48000GTC). At one time, much of that carbon was in the atmosphere and was biologically active.

Looking at this diagram, en.wikipedia.org
Atmospheric carbon was 5000 ppm about 500M years ago. At the end of the last ice age, carbon was 200ppm. This decline of 96% is a significant decline in my book.

Another 96% decline would take us to 8ppm. My use of the term "100% sequestration" was to point out one extreme boundary where one could easily imagine the negative effects of such a condition.

The point I am apparently struggling to make is this. The planet's apparent natural tendency to sequester carbon over long periods of time. Let unattended, it appears the planet is going to continue sequester carbon until very little is biologically active. I happen to think that is a negative for the planet.

Why So Little Carbon in the Atmosphere?

In the atmospheres of our sister planets, Mars and Venus, carbon dioxide is dominant. On both planets, there is more CO2 in the air than on Earth. On Mars it's about 30 times more, while on Venus it is about 300,000 times more! While the Earth does have enormous amounts of carbon nearly all of it is tied up in carbonate sediments, coal, and other organic matter, rather than being stored in the atmosphere.

Plants, algae and shell-making organisms are ultimately responsible for the large-scale solidification of carbon dioxide within carbonate minerals (stored in limestone rock) and organic materials.

earthguide.ucsd.edu