morphball
10-23-2006, 05:00 PM
<u>Cliffnotes</u>--burning hydrocarbons causes global warming today, but burning hydrocarbons likely caused global warming in the past, and no, it wasn't the lost city of atlantis
We know that the earth has gone through hot periods and cool periods. No one has explained why. Some say it is because of the earth’s the wobble, and others say it was caused by solar weather, etc., etc. But why do we need these fancy explanations? Isn’t the easiest answer usually the right one? Don’t we already know that CO2 causes global warming? We do. Venus proves this fact more than adequately.
http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/lectures/venus.htm
Thus, I submit that earth’s history of climate change is simply explained by the same mechanisms that are causing today’s greenhouse effect. That’s right, I am saying that at different points in our past, the concentration of CO2 has increased without mankind to blame, and the proof is utterly simple.
Let’s start with some observations upon which we can all agree.
1. CO2 is a greenhouse gases.
2. Life did not always exist on earth.
3. When life did not exist on earth, we did not have a biomass, you know, things like bogs, topsoil, forests, etc.
4. Biomass is created ultimately by the photosynthesis of CO2.
5. At moment, the earth has a very large biomass.
6. Earth has had previous periods of heating and cooling.
What these mean is that over time, more and more CO2 has been introduced into the earth’s atmosphere. How can we be sure of this, you ask?
Simple. Nature reaches states of equilibrium. At the moment, we breathe O2, which reacts with sugars in our blood (i.e., our bodies are essentially burning wood) and we exhale CO2. This then floats in the atmosphere until a plant gets hold of it, uses the Sun’s energy to turn the CO2 into a sugar and exhales O2. However, we can only continue to breath if we have sufficient plants to eat. Thus eventually we will reach a point of equilibrium where the rate we exhale CO2 will equal the rate of that plants produce biomass through photosynthesis.
Let’s go a step further. A one point in time, the earth did not have a biomass at all. Today, its biomass is astonishingly large. What this means is that over time, the earth’s atmosphere was injected with more CO2 than was exhaled by aerobic organisms such as ourselves. If this was not the case, then the biomass would have had to stop growing at some previous point through the establishment of an equilibrium. Thus, we can be sure that earth’s atmosphere has continually been receiving more and more CO2, which in turn has been photosynthesized into biomass and O2 by plants. (It has also been absorbed into the ocean where it reacted with silicate rock to lock the CO2 up in carbonaceous rock…)
There is also another factor that supports this assumption, and that is the nature of oxygen, good ole O2. Oxygen is a very reactive element. In other words, Oxygen would rather be attached to things like Carbon and Hydrogen then existing in its pure state. Now, it needs a little energy to start the process, but once started, the process is exothermic. This means that once Oxygen begins to bond with another element, it will produce more than enough energy to start a chain reaction whereby a system’s available oxygen will be consumed. Think about things like forest fires and rust, and you will see where I am going.
Thus, we are stuck with two things. A large biomass and a large amount of oxygen which should not be here, unless large amounts of CO2 were continually injected to the system.
But where did the CO2 come from? Simple, from the ground we walk on. That’s right, I am arguing that throughout the history of our planet, CO2 has been coming out of the ground. There is no other explanation for climate change that is as simple as this. But it will get a little more wacki (excuse the pun …) in a second.
The CO2 ultimately comes from the ground we walk on, but in reality it comes from the mantle and core, hundreds to thousands of miles beneath our feet.
The most common elements in the earth are:
Aluminum
Bromine
Calcium
Carbon
Chlorine
Fluorine
Helium
Hydrogen
Iodine
Iron
Magnesium
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Potassium
Silicon
Sodium
Sulfur
http://www.esse.ou.edu/fund_concepts/Fundamental_Concepts1/Elements/The_Elements.html#Carbon
If we concerns ourselves with just the crust, we see that that the most common elements are:
46.6% Oxygen (O)
27.7% Silica (Si)
8.1% Aluminum (Al)
5.0% Iron (Fe)
3.6% Calcium (Ca)
2.8% Sodium (Na)
2.6% Potassium (K)
2.1% Magnesium (Mg)
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/geology/crust_elements.html
Now, what’s interesting about the crust, is that carbon is not very common when we are talking about the ground we walk on. Isn’t this a little odd, considering that carbon is the sixth most common element in the universe?
http://www.nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/modules/carbon/carbon1.html
But look and see what the most common element is in the crust. Good old reactive oxygen. Keep this in mind. Now we are getting somewhere. The sixth most common element in the universe is not very common in the crust of earth. And its not very common in our atmosphere either…
[ QUOTE ]
We first look at the current atmosphere of the Earth. Recall that the current atmopshere of the Earth has a pressure of 1 bar which is ~ 100 times larger than Mars and ~ 1 % that of Venus. The composisiton of the Earth's atmosphere is 78 % Nitrogen molecules ad 21 % Oxygen molecules with trace amounts of other things, in particular, water, carbon dioxide, methane, and CFCs (more on these things later).
[/ QUOTE ]
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/talks/mars/lecture-11.html (Interestingly enough, Venus’ atmosphere is 96.5% CO2.)
So how is it that the sixth most common element in the universe is not very common in our air or in our soil?
Simple, because once CO2 gets into the air, it is eventually pulled out and converted into biomass (or converted into carbonaceous rock by reactions in our oceans).
The trick to climate change is identifying what caused CO2 to escape from the ground in the past. The answer again is simple. Hydrocarbons.
Wait. Aren’t we causing global warming by burning hydrocarbons in cars and power plants. Precisely. But, do you need a power plant or an engine to burn a hydrocarbon? Nope, you only need a match. (Actually a strike of lightning would work as well.)
You know what else is neat about hydrocarbons? They are buoyant, at least compared to the heavier elements in the earth. They want to rise out of the ground of their own accord. You recall how the first oil wells were discovered, don’t you? By oil bubbling from the ground. Now that the permafrost is thawing, methane is escaping the tundra’s soil in record quanities.
So what would happen in the past say if oil started to come out of the ground and no one was there to take and put it in tanks? It would just build up and build until there was some huge pool/lake/sea of oil somewhere and then boom, at the right time, it catches on fire and all of the sudden a huge amount of CO2 has been introduced into the atmosphere. What would happen if a volcanic eruption occurred underneath an oil reserve the size of Texas or Iraq. Also, recall that the earth's crust is nearly 50% oxygen, so there is enough there for the hydrocarbons to react in the crust and escape into the air as CO2 without having to burn in the atmosphere.
So the point of my whole discourse here is that I feel that earth’s previous periods of global heating were caused by the same thing as today’s—the burning of hydrocarbons.
We know that the earth has gone through hot periods and cool periods. No one has explained why. Some say it is because of the earth’s the wobble, and others say it was caused by solar weather, etc., etc. But why do we need these fancy explanations? Isn’t the easiest answer usually the right one? Don’t we already know that CO2 causes global warming? We do. Venus proves this fact more than adequately.
http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/lectures/venus.htm
Thus, I submit that earth’s history of climate change is simply explained by the same mechanisms that are causing today’s greenhouse effect. That’s right, I am saying that at different points in our past, the concentration of CO2 has increased without mankind to blame, and the proof is utterly simple.
Let’s start with some observations upon which we can all agree.
1. CO2 is a greenhouse gases.
2. Life did not always exist on earth.
3. When life did not exist on earth, we did not have a biomass, you know, things like bogs, topsoil, forests, etc.
4. Biomass is created ultimately by the photosynthesis of CO2.
5. At moment, the earth has a very large biomass.
6. Earth has had previous periods of heating and cooling.
What these mean is that over time, more and more CO2 has been introduced into the earth’s atmosphere. How can we be sure of this, you ask?
Simple. Nature reaches states of equilibrium. At the moment, we breathe O2, which reacts with sugars in our blood (i.e., our bodies are essentially burning wood) and we exhale CO2. This then floats in the atmosphere until a plant gets hold of it, uses the Sun’s energy to turn the CO2 into a sugar and exhales O2. However, we can only continue to breath if we have sufficient plants to eat. Thus eventually we will reach a point of equilibrium where the rate we exhale CO2 will equal the rate of that plants produce biomass through photosynthesis.
Let’s go a step further. A one point in time, the earth did not have a biomass at all. Today, its biomass is astonishingly large. What this means is that over time, the earth’s atmosphere was injected with more CO2 than was exhaled by aerobic organisms such as ourselves. If this was not the case, then the biomass would have had to stop growing at some previous point through the establishment of an equilibrium. Thus, we can be sure that earth’s atmosphere has continually been receiving more and more CO2, which in turn has been photosynthesized into biomass and O2 by plants. (It has also been absorbed into the ocean where it reacted with silicate rock to lock the CO2 up in carbonaceous rock…)
There is also another factor that supports this assumption, and that is the nature of oxygen, good ole O2. Oxygen is a very reactive element. In other words, Oxygen would rather be attached to things like Carbon and Hydrogen then existing in its pure state. Now, it needs a little energy to start the process, but once started, the process is exothermic. This means that once Oxygen begins to bond with another element, it will produce more than enough energy to start a chain reaction whereby a system’s available oxygen will be consumed. Think about things like forest fires and rust, and you will see where I am going.
Thus, we are stuck with two things. A large biomass and a large amount of oxygen which should not be here, unless large amounts of CO2 were continually injected to the system.
But where did the CO2 come from? Simple, from the ground we walk on. That’s right, I am arguing that throughout the history of our planet, CO2 has been coming out of the ground. There is no other explanation for climate change that is as simple as this. But it will get a little more wacki (excuse the pun …) in a second.
The CO2 ultimately comes from the ground we walk on, but in reality it comes from the mantle and core, hundreds to thousands of miles beneath our feet.
The most common elements in the earth are:
Aluminum
Bromine
Calcium
Carbon
Chlorine
Fluorine
Helium
Hydrogen
Iodine
Iron
Magnesium
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Potassium
Silicon
Sodium
Sulfur
http://www.esse.ou.edu/fund_concepts/Fundamental_Concepts1/Elements/The_Elements.html#Carbon
If we concerns ourselves with just the crust, we see that that the most common elements are:
46.6% Oxygen (O)
27.7% Silica (Si)
8.1% Aluminum (Al)
5.0% Iron (Fe)
3.6% Calcium (Ca)
2.8% Sodium (Na)
2.6% Potassium (K)
2.1% Magnesium (Mg)
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/geology/crust_elements.html
Now, what’s interesting about the crust, is that carbon is not very common when we are talking about the ground we walk on. Isn’t this a little odd, considering that carbon is the sixth most common element in the universe?
http://www.nyu.edu/pages/mathmol/modules/carbon/carbon1.html
But look and see what the most common element is in the crust. Good old reactive oxygen. Keep this in mind. Now we are getting somewhere. The sixth most common element in the universe is not very common in the crust of earth. And its not very common in our atmosphere either…
[ QUOTE ]
We first look at the current atmosphere of the Earth. Recall that the current atmopshere of the Earth has a pressure of 1 bar which is ~ 100 times larger than Mars and ~ 1 % that of Venus. The composisiton of the Earth's atmosphere is 78 % Nitrogen molecules ad 21 % Oxygen molecules with trace amounts of other things, in particular, water, carbon dioxide, methane, and CFCs (more on these things later).
[/ QUOTE ]
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~imamura/talks/mars/lecture-11.html (Interestingly enough, Venus’ atmosphere is 96.5% CO2.)
So how is it that the sixth most common element in the universe is not very common in our air or in our soil?
Simple, because once CO2 gets into the air, it is eventually pulled out and converted into biomass (or converted into carbonaceous rock by reactions in our oceans).
The trick to climate change is identifying what caused CO2 to escape from the ground in the past. The answer again is simple. Hydrocarbons.
Wait. Aren’t we causing global warming by burning hydrocarbons in cars and power plants. Precisely. But, do you need a power plant or an engine to burn a hydrocarbon? Nope, you only need a match. (Actually a strike of lightning would work as well.)
You know what else is neat about hydrocarbons? They are buoyant, at least compared to the heavier elements in the earth. They want to rise out of the ground of their own accord. You recall how the first oil wells were discovered, don’t you? By oil bubbling from the ground. Now that the permafrost is thawing, methane is escaping the tundra’s soil in record quanities.
So what would happen in the past say if oil started to come out of the ground and no one was there to take and put it in tanks? It would just build up and build until there was some huge pool/lake/sea of oil somewhere and then boom, at the right time, it catches on fire and all of the sudden a huge amount of CO2 has been introduced into the atmosphere. What would happen if a volcanic eruption occurred underneath an oil reserve the size of Texas or Iraq. Also, recall that the earth's crust is nearly 50% oxygen, so there is enough there for the hydrocarbons to react in the crust and escape into the air as CO2 without having to burn in the atmosphere.
So the point of my whole discourse here is that I feel that earth’s previous periods of global heating were caused by the same thing as today’s—the burning of hydrocarbons.