North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark Dorogi" <mddorogi@comcast.net>]

One of the most fascinating things to me is the difference between earth and Venus, where the atmosphere is practically all CO2, 100 times thicker than ours, the surface pressure is 1400 psi, and the temperature is 900F.   Why?  All the carbon is in the atmosphere on Venus, since there is no water to complete the cycle where carbon is fixed in rocks and other underground storage methods.  There is no water because Venus is close enough to the sun that the solar energy disassociated water molecules long ago, and the lighter H2 escaped to space.  All of the carbon was eventually oxidized, and there is sits in the atmosphere.  It is believed that earlier in its history, when the sun was cooler, Venus did have water and could have been more earth-like, but we obviously don’t know.

 

At least, that’s the prevailing theory to explain the situation on Venus, not without some shortcomings no doubt. 

 

Earth has around the same amount of carbon as Venus, but most is locked up in rocks and underground.   The atmosphere holds around 750 billion tons of CO2; sequestered amounts of carbon are something like 80 million billion tons.

 

There is no danger of having the same run-away greenhouse effect here on earth, we are simply too far from the sun for that.   So, yes, the earth is a closed system, we still have the same amount of carbon we always had, but we are moving large quantities from sequestered forms like fossil fuels into the atmosphere by burning those fuels and changing land use patterns.  We are putting more into the atmosphere than the normal carbon cycle can remove: hence, the atmospheric concentration is building.  Roughly, we put 6 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere per year, something like half or more is took up pretty quickly by the oceans and plants, etc, and the rest is building in the atmosphere.

 

Mark

 

From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of william Eggers
Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2009 10:53 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Weather (Off topic)

 

I've always wondered about this CO2 business.  Since the earth is a closed system, it looks like to me that we still have the same amount of carbon that we have always had.  If so, how did we get so much more that we are worring about it?

--- On Sat, 3/28/09, Kieran &/or Donna <holycow@frontiernet.net> wrote:

From: Kieran &/or Donna <holycow@frontiernet.net>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Weather (Off topic)
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Saturday, March 28, 2009, 5:06 PM

Well, I had some interesting thoughts the other day.  We had cut down a 50 year old pine and I was thinking about how they'd used these impossible-to-split virginia pines for making log cabins.  Next day I was walking in the neighboring field and thinking about how it was all once virgin timber and that all the wimpy woodlands surrounding it were huge old trees before the white man came.  Then I wondered, "Where are those trees now?"  All the timber that was cut down not just the first time, but all the times since, where did they go?  Where are the houses, the barns, the fences that were built with them?  Most have rotted away or burnt down, and they are now existing as CO2 and water and some minerals in the soil or most likely in the ocean.  What does THAT do to global temps?  I am only too aware of what it does when you chop down all the trees and have exposed soil or pavement or house roofs.  But the difference between the amount of carbon that was in trees, not to mention what was in the rich organic matter content of the soil... all that must be in the atmosphere now.  Donna  

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

_______________________________________________
nafex mailing list
nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Reproduction of list messages or archives is not allowed.
This includes distribution on other email lists or reproduction on web sites.
Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so don't claim you have permission!

**YOU MUST BE SUBSCRIBED TO POST!**
Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are discarded.
No exceptions. 
----
To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used to change other email options):
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex

File attachments are NOT stripped by this list.
TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
Please do not send binary files.
Use plain text ONLY in emails!

NAFEX web site:   http://www.nafex.org/