Posted on 10/07/2018 1:15:49 PM PDT by kathsua
The people who want to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) don't understand the biosphere. Carbon and oxygen are two of the most important elements for biological life. 65% of the human body is oxygen and 18.5% is carbon. Plants are carbon structures with the percentage of carbon varying according to the type of plant.
The CO2 oxygen cycle is critical to the functioning of the biosphere. Animals exhale CO2 which plants then use to produce the molecules such as sugars and starches that animals use for food. Plants release oxygen into the air which animals inhale and combine with the carbon compounds to grow or perform various body functions.
CO2 is a major source of that carbon that provides the structure for plants. Absorbing CO2 through the leaves allows plants to use their roots for water and minor nutrients, particularly during the initial growth when they don't have extensive root systems. Some plants grow better as the amount of CO2 in the air increases. Some greenhouses use CO2 enrichment equipment to add CO2 to improve plant growth.
Humans are already removing large amounts of carbon from the environment through such actions as construction of wooden buildings and making paper. Much paper and plant wastes are buried in landfills making the carbon unavailable to become part of plants.
The combustion of fossil carbon fuels offsets the removal of carbon from the environment and increases the planet's ability to grow more plants. Adding carbon to the ground to replace carbon in harvested plants isn't as practical as adding carbon to the air in the form of CO2. Converting carbon to a gas allows easy transfer of carbon to places where plants grow.
Plants are normally thought of in terms of their biological function, but they have an important physics function. Plants are the original solar energy storage devices. Globally plants convert huge amounts of solar radiation into the chemical bonds of complex carbon molecules. This process reduces the amount of solar energy converted to heat energy. Thus, increasing CO2 actually leads to lower temperatures rather than higher temperatures.
The molecules plants produce can be extremely long lived. If fossil fuels are ancient plant wastes as is commonly believed, the combustion of fossil fuels releases solar energy stored millions of years ago.
Each CO2 molecule contains 2 oxygen atoms which are essential to animal life because animals breathe oxygen. Burying oxygen would reduce the amount available for humans to breathe and adversely affect human health.
A better way to "get rid" of CO2 would be to encourage plant growth to return the oxygen to the air humans breathe. For example, power plants that produce CO2 could have attached greenhouses to recycle the CO2 into oxygen for humans to breathe and plants to convert to food or fuel.
Locking up Co2 would be a waste of energy. Plants would not grow as well, causing the amount of Co2 in the air to increase right up to the point where it was before the sequestering began.
The alarmists reject the notion that any increase in CO2 will increase green plant life, which will increase plant-life absorption of CO2, which will increase the carbon-sink in plant life and recycle the oxygen - offsetting increases in atmospheric CO2.
Locking up carbon dioxide is a fool’s errand. We could sequester every bit emitted in industrial processes here in the United States, even most of the “first world” countries, and the “emerging nations” could easily take up the slack and replace all that had been sequestered, and more.
And wait until Africa industrializes on a scale approaching that of the late twentieth century of the rest of the world.
Carbon dioxide is not the culprit here.
Plant a tree. Sequestering CO2 for billions of years.
Plant trees. It automatically sequesters carbon, produces oxygen and heals the earth from pollutants.
Truly a no brainer...
Good post.
Maybe the warmers are fing idiots
So could I demand some tax refunds if I use grass on the roof?
“So could I demand some tax refunds if I use grass on the roof?”
No, but libs love it if you smoke grass in your home.
Carbon sequestration is a problem, not a solution. Carbon gets sequestered naturally, in ways that does not naturally return into the atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide. These seashells were made from atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, dissolved into sea water, and combined with Calcium to create Calcium Carbonite sea shells. The shells sink into the bottom of the ocean to become sedimentary rock. The only things that have released this carbon back into the atmosphere are the petroleum and cement industries.
You need CO2 dissolved in your blood to form HCO3(bicarb) to bind with a highly toxic compound( ammonia) and chemically alter ammonia to urea and excrete it from the body in your urine. In this case CO2 is a lifesaver...(see urea cycle).
Plant a tree... Make dry ice for shipment...plant two trees for each representative who flies to a global warming conference..
Maybe they just want to guarantee the availability of fizzy beverages for the next 1000 generations, or so
Sequestering CO2 is just plain dumb.
Who are these scientists? Did they get their degrees from a diploma mill?
No tax refunds for you, unless your Al Gore, hes the carbon king.
Africans must first come to terms with mechanized farming before they move toward an industrial society. Only applied abstract thinking combined with a plan toward future goals, will suffice to gain such a status.
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