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And That Global Warming

Cowpuncher

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
652
Location
Southeastern Colorado
It now appears that the whole global warming thing is rapidly turning into the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind.

Some billions of years ago, according to the big bang theory and those that study these things, the earth was formed. Almost all of the matter which is now present on the planet was there when it started, with perhaps, some minor stuff that arrived later as meteors.

The carbon which the climate change people are so worried about was probably in the form of carbon dioxide. The nitrogen which makes up most of the atmosphere was probably in the form of ammonia NH3.
No doubt there was some plain old water vapor imvolved.

Over untold millions of years, the ammonia split into water and hydrocarbons from the carbon dioxide. Plant life converted a bunch of CO2 into hydrocarbons like coal, natural gas and oil which became a part of the earth's crust.Certainly the percentage of CO2 in the atmosphere was greater than it is now.

Probably, even the carbon in our soil and that in the hydrocarbons including shale oil, tar sands, oil, gas, peat bogs, etc is far greater that that in the atmosphere.

Geologists tell us, and they can prove it, that a large part of the earth which is now desert was once primeval forest with lush vegetation. Almost every place on earth where there are sedimentary rock has some evidence of prior plant life.

We also know now that deserts such as the Sahara, Khalari and Gobi are expanding, reducing the available arable land where crops can be grown.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported that aspen trees were tested for effects of higher CO2 level in their atmosphere. (I don't know how they did it, but that is their report.) Anyway, they found that when the CO2 levels were increased, the growth rate of trees accelerated greatly indicating that CO2 enhances growth of plant life.

If this is so, it seems that a bit of higher CO2 in the amosphere would actually be good and that the encroaching deserts may well be partially the result of lower CO2 levels than in the past millenia.

I do not know if the ideas above are valid since I am an old goat and too lazy to find out, BUT before mankind spends untold trillions of dollars fixing something that is not broken , someone else might check it out.
 
Cowpuncher said:
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported that aspen trees were tested for effects of higher CO2 level in their atmosphere. (I don't know how they did it, but that is their report.) Anyway, they found that when the CO2 levels were increased, the growth rate of trees accelerated greatly indicating that CO2 enhances growth of plant life.

If this is so, it seems that a bit of higher CO2 in the amosphere would actually be good and that the encroaching deserts may well be partially the result of lower CO2 levels than in the past millenia.

I do not know if the ideas above are valid since I am an old goat and too lazy to find out, BUT before mankind spends untold trillions of dollars fixing something that is not broken , someone else might check it out.

Cowpuncher, CO2 is a necessary component of photosynthesis....numerous studies have proven that the higher concentration of CO2 in the air the greater the yield of plants. This is why many commercial greenhouses use CO2 Enrichment or 'Air Fertilization' to increase the levels of CO2. In fact currently we are getting close to having to little CO2 in the atmosphere, once you drop below levels of 150 ppm of CO2 plant life has a hard time growing. Here is a link to a explanation from a garden supply company website; just chose one of the first things that appeared in a quick google search. http://www.homeharvest.com/carbondioxideenrichment.htm
 
Carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations in the atmosphere increased from approximately 280 parts per million (ppm) in pre-industrial times to 382 ppm in 2006 according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA)

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/recentac.html



Although carbon dioxide is one of three main components which combine to produce the products necessary for plant growth, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air is only 0.03% (250 to 330 parts per million). This compares to 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen and 0.97% trace gases in normal air. Numerous tests have proven that during the winter months carbon dioxide concentrations inside greenhouses is invariably much lower than in outside air. This same phenomenon has been shown in controlled environment gardens.


Research has shown that in most cases rate of plant growth under otherwise identical growing conditions is directly related to carbon dioxide concentration.

The amount of carbon dioxide a plant requires to grow may vary from plant to plant, but tests show that most plants will stop growing when the CO2 level decreases below 150 ppm. Even at 220 ppm, a slow-down in plant growth is significantly noticeable.
Colorado State University conducted tests with carnations and other flowers in controlled CO2 atmospheres ranging from 200 to 550 ppm. The higher CO2 concentrations significantly increased the rate of formation of dry plant matter, total flower yield and market value.

http://www.homeharvest.com/carbondioxideenrichment.htm
 

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