Reforesting France with Carbon from Fossil Fuels

[Andre]

I think that I mentioned here sometimes that more CO2 would mean more biomass and that the annual fosil fuel use would produce enough carbon to reforest an area as big as France.

Guess what's happening:

http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=2138

 

[Skyhunter]

I think that I mentioned here sometimes that more CO2 would mean more biomass and that the annual fosil fuel use would produce enough carbon to reforest an area as big as France.

Guess what's happening:

http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=2138

The northern hemisphere is greening. Specifically above 40 degrees North latitude.

The contributing factors are temperature and longer growing season. Spring is coming earlier, and Summer is staying longer. Richer atmospheric CO₂ is a factor as well, but not as great a factor as climate change.

“When we looked at temperature and satellite vegetation data, we saw that year-to-year changes in growth and duration of the growing season of northern vegetation are tightly linked to year-to-year changes in temperature,” Liming Zhou of Boston University said. The area of vegetation has not extended, but the existing vegetation has increased in density.

 

[Skyhunter]

Although it has been updated June 8, 2006, it is essentially an excerpt from this http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20010904greenhouse.html published September 4, 2001.

What I find intriguing is the possibility of utilizing the increased growing season to help absorb the increase of CO₂ from carbon emissions. More trees are welcome.

Scientists believe the results indicate a greener greenhouse. "This is an important finding because of possible implications to the global carbon cycle," said Ranga Myneni of Boston University. "However, more research is needed to determine how much carbon is being absorbed, and how much longer it will continue."

 

[Skyhunter]

This could be an opportunity for new technologies being developed to utilize bio-mass and carbon sequestration in the production of hydrogen, diesel, and fertilizers.

http://www.eprida.com/hydro/index.htm

The need is imperative for demonstrating profitable ways to sequester or fix carbon into solid product forms with large volume application (click to see calculations and impacts) such as soil amendments to enhance no-till farming, carriers for natural pesticides, water run-off protection in riparian buffer strips, as well as others. EPRIDA seeks to help the planet to effectively remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere (for thousands of years) while assisting in the technology implementation for producing the fuel of today and the future.

 

[ckmoore]

Has there been a corresponding increase in marine and fresh-water algae? Of the total carbon fixed by plants by photosynthesis, only about ten percent is by terrestrial green plants--trees, grass, moss, etc.

 

[Skyhunter]

Here is some more greening in the northern hemisphere.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,434356,00.html

Check out the pictures..

 

[nannoh]

How about a browning earth?

With the climate warming in some regions, indigenous insects, like the mountain pine beetle, are more active for longer periods and there is more migration of warm climate insects to areas unaccustomed to their voracious appetites.

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/mountain_pine_beetle/images/MPB_July8_03.jpg

http://images.google.ca/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=aerial+pine+beetle&btnG=Search

 

[Skyhunter]

How about a browning earth?

With the climate warming in some regions, indigenous insects, like the mountain pine beetle, are more active for longer periods and there is more migration of warm climate insects to areas unaccustomed to their voracious appetites.

http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/mountain_pine_beetle/images/MPB_July8_03.jpg

http://images.google.ca/images?svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&q=aerial+pine+beetle&btnG=Search

Drought conditions weaken the resistance of plants making them more susceptible to disease and insects.

According to a study about to be released, we may be in for a dry century.

Nearly a third of the world's land surface may be at risk of extreme drought by the end of the century, wreaking havoc on farmland and water resources and leading to mass migrations of "environmental refugees", climate experts warned yesterday.

Predictions based on historical trends in rainfall and surface temperatures dating back to the 1950s reveal that regions blighted by moderate droughts are set to double by the end of the century, with tentative data suggesting areas struck by extreme droughts may soar from 1% today to 30% in 2100.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1886964,00.html

The study is due to be published at the end of the month in the Journal of Hydrometeorology.

Whether or not one agrees with the science, the entire Earth will suffer the consequences.

 

[nannoh]

Drought conditions weaken the resistance of plants making them more susceptible to disease and insects.

According to a study about to be released, we may be in for a dry century.

In the case of the northern pine forests in Canada the consequences are more of a result of warmer temperatures. Drought is not the culprit in the northern regions. The beetle that is causing the "browning" is simply rebounding in a lack of cold weather. What is needed is a solid 2 weeks of 40 below (C) to interrupt their lifecycle and reduce their numbers. 40 below (C) was, at one time, the norm for winter temps all across the north. With that norm being changed there is the threat of the northern pine beetle spreading throughout the forests of the region all the way to the Atlantic Seaboard.