Note to wifey:
I already know
you're going to
read this, and say
" what jokes? "
when you see me later.
It's nice to have a wife
with a sense of humor !
And if you say that,
I'll tell everyone,
the first time I was
introduced to you,
on July 7, 1977,
at work,
I actually said:
" I just flew in from New York.
Boy, are my arms tired !"
And here we are still together,
40.5 years later,
and I know more than ever before
that you are the perfect woman for me
... to annoy for the rest of my life
with bad jokes !
Unfortunately,
this here post,
is a serious science post,
with only one insult
directed to leftists,
at the end,
to wake up readers:
All life is carbon based.
Most carbon is from
CO2 in the atmosphere.
18,000 to 20,000 years ago,
at the last peak glaciation,
CO2 levels were the lowest ever
-- in the 150 to 200ppm range --
low enough to stunt plant growth.
Below 150 parts per million.
plants would begin dying
from CO2 starvation.
Fossil fuels burned for energy
reversed a CO2 downtrend
that could have ended
life on our planet.
Human CO2 emissions
have ensured the long-term
continuation of life on Earth.
That good news
easily offsets the
unproven hypothesis
that human CO2 emissions
will cause
catastrophic warming.
The average temperature
has almost certainly increased
since the lowest temperatures
of the "Little Ice Age'
in the late 1600's.
Probably by
at least +2 degrees C.
CO2 is a greenhouse gas
likely to produce mild, harmless
global warming, so minor
that the average temperature,
in the 'age of man made CO2'
after 1940, spent more time
going down (1940 to 1975),
or being steady (2000 to 2015),
than going up (1975 to 2000).
Earth’s climate is a chaotic,
non-linear, multi-variable system
with unpredictable feedbacks,
both positive and negative.
The future climate
can not be predicted.
The original source of CO2
in the air is believed to be
massive volcanic eruptions
during Earth’s early days.
Extreme heat
caused the
oxidation of carbon
in Earth’s interior,
to form CO2.
Today CO2
is a minor gas
at only 0.04%
of the atmosphere.
CO2 has been absorbed
by the oceans and other
bodies of water, where it is
food for phytoplankton
and kelp.
The carbon cycle
is a complex series
of exchanges among
the atmosphere,
the hydrosphere,
living species and
decomposing
organic matter
in soils and sediments.
The majority of the carbon
absorbed from the atmosphere
by plants is now deep deposits
of minerals
(carbonaceous rock),
such as chalk, limestone,
marble, dolomite
... and fossil fuels.
The majority of
the sequestered carbon
is in the rocks.
We do have
estimates of CO2 levels
for over 500 million years,
from Antarctica
ice core studies.
The best estimate
of CO2 in the air
540 million years ago
is 7,000 ppm,
or 17.5x times
the current level
of 400 ppm.
This was during
the Cambrian Explosion,
when modern life began.
In the the prior
4 billion years
there was only
one-celled microscopic
sea life.
CO2 has dropped
during major glaciations
to dangerously low levels
versus plant requirements.
The reduction of CO2
in the past
140 million years
from 2,500 ppm,
to about 180 ppm,
was caused by
CaCO3 (calcium carbonate)
deposition
deposition
from plankton
and coral reefs
in marine sediments.
CO2 reached 280 ppm
prior to the
Industrial Revolution
when fossil fuels
became dominant
for energy.
CO2 has risen
by 120 ppm
in a little more than
100 years,
from 280 ppm
to 400 ppm,
compared with
a “natural” rise
from 180 ppm
to 280 ppm
over 15,000 years.
The CO2 increase
is due to
fossil fuel combustion,
land-use changes,
cement production
and outgassing of CO2
from the oceans
as they warmed.
During the past
3.5 billion years,
99.5% of the carbon
from CO2
has been sequestered
in carbonaceous rocks
and to a much lesser extent,
in fossil fuels.
Venus and Mars
have atmospheres
dominated by CO2,
but did not evolve
life that could
convert the CO2
to CaCO3 (calcium carbonate)
to be buried
in marine sediments.
The next major
peak glaciation
could begin at any time.
Interglacials
(warm periods)
have averaged
about 10,000 years,
and our current
Holocene interglacial
began nearly
12,000 years ago !
Both sets
of ice core data
from Antarctica
show changes
in temperature
usually precede
changes in
CO2 levels !
The increase in CO2
is responsible for
increased plant growth.
25% to 50%
of man made
CO2 emissions,
are absorbed by plants,
increasing plant biomass.
This has been described
as a “greening of the Earth”.
An experimental
German forest
has a continuous
record of growth
since 1870.
After 1960,
CO2 emissions rose rapidly,
and the growth rate
of individual trees
increased by 32% to 77%,
consistent with lab studies
on the effects of
increased CO2 levels
on plants.
Greenhouse operators
throughout the world
inject additional CO2
into their greenhouses
to increase plant growth.
The optimum level of CO2
for plant growth is between
1,000 ppm and 3,000 ppm,
much higher than
the 400 ppm in the air today.
More CO2 is better
than less CO2 !
than less CO2 !
Wanting less CO2
is anti-science !
is anti-science !
Humans adding CO2 to the air,
was, inadvertently, the best thing
we have done to improve
the environment of our planet !
Scientist James Lovelock designed
part of the life-detection equipment
for NASA, for the first US
Mars lander.
A bright guy !
Then he became
a strong advocate
for reducing
CO2 emissions.
Boo, hiss !
But in a 2010 public speech,
at London’s Science Museum,
Lovelock recanted, saying:
"It is worth thinking that
what we are doing
in creating
all these carbon emissions,
far from something frightful,
is stopping the onset
of a new ice age.
If we hadn’t
appeared on the earth,
it would be due to go
through another ice age
and we can look at our part
as holding that up.
I hate all this business
about feeling guilty
about what we’re doing."
A slightly warmer world
from more CO2,
mainly at night
in colder climates,
would also be
a greener world,
with higher yields
of food crops and trees,
and a more pleasant climate
in high latitudes.
And maybe we'd delay
the next ice age too !
The optimum CO2 level
for plant growth
is at least 1,000 ppm,
and CO2 has been
above that level
for almost all
of the history
of life on this planet.
Demanding a CO2 reduction,
with no scientific evidence,
of catastrophic climate change
at any time in the past
4.5 billion years,
which had
higher CO2 levels
than today
almost the entire time,
is a demand made by liberals
and fools (I repeat myself).
Richard Greene
Bingham Farms, Michigan
January 9, 2018