Earth hour

[Alun]

The seas would only become more acidic if they were absorbing the co2 rather than aquatic plant life using it for photosynthesis, drawing it directly from the air. Or am I misunderstanding the process here?

[Jay_Benson]

Originally Posted by John63

Hi Jay,

my post was supposed yo be tongue in cheek. Sorry if it didn't come across that way.

Probably me.

Originally Posted by John63

why woud they dry up and die. Warmer wetaher and rising sea level would create higher humidity. Granted, the jungles might be cut by man for logging, clearing space for habitation etc which would have a detrimental effect on the jungle ecosystem.

My understanding is that there not be a uniform warming but that there will be variations in the effect but there are likely to be greater extremes of weather hence the middle east could get even hotter whilst the UK gets colder in winter and hotter in summer.

Originally Posted by John63

Correct for UK but nor everywher is warmed by the gulf stream.(are they?). These may become warmer. For thise living in UK, best do that ice diving course or buy a set of skis.

Good call.

Originally Posted by John63

I've lived in the middle east for over eight years and every winter after a day or two of rain, there are green shoots all over. In winters with prolonged periods of rain, there cn be carpets of soft green grass everywhere. The problem in desert areas is prolonged periods with a lack of water (typically Feb-Dec)
My garden (watered but not fed or fertlised) has masses of tropical plants similar to those in SE Asia (sorry apart from the bouganvilia and plams I have no idea what they are). This appears to be self sustaining. If this happens in my garden why not over a larger area if left to nature? Given the rate of growth that I see each winter, I can see no reason why this wouldn't happen in years not lifetimes

I stand corrected - I was making assumptions. This will be dependant on the water getting there.

[Jay_Benson]

Originally Posted by dry suit diver

while China, India and a lot of other countries do feck all and we still end up with a broken planet??


we all know that however much we do the effects will be negated by the 3 big pollluters within minutes.

I drive a big 4x4 that chucks out ooodles of Co2 it can run on biodiesel and when the UK is covered in snow I will be able to drive places



BTW I do as much as I can to be green, the loft is very nearly full of nsulation we have A rated washing machine A rated condensing combi boiler we have all lamps as low energy we recycle 90% of the waste ( three weeks and only half a wheelie bin compared to needing to get extra boxes for recycling. we turn off all electrical equipment so its not on standby, the graph that EDF attach to the bills show how much we are saving in energy each quarter compared to last years figures ad we have cut 1/4 off usage with some simple measures.

The amount of energy lost from houses is very large and I know that we have managed to reduce our bills / ebergy use by a similar amount year on year.

[CatB]

Originally Posted by Alun

The seas would only become more acidic if they were absorbing the co2 rather than aquatic plant life using it for photosynthesis, drawing it directly from the air. Or am I misunderstanding the process here?

Currently the oceans are indeed absorbing the CO2 directly - how much longer this will continue, at what rate and the effect on ocean acidity and marine ecology, I think is still under investigation.

Whether marine plant life would be fertalised by CO2 and thus draw down more of it, depends on whether there are enough of the other necessary nutrients for plant growth available - as far as I am aware marine productivity is limited by nutrient availability in most of the oceans. Also, remember that the CO2 is only taken up by those plants / algae while they are living or if after their death they are buried on the sea floor and ultimately turned into fossil fuels or carbon rich rocks. Algae that dies and sinks mainly decomposes quickly and the carbon and other nutrients are recycled quickly back into surface waters or go into deeper ocean waters which upwell elsewhere, releasing the CO2.

Finally, CO2 is more soluble in cold water so warming the ocean decreases the amount of CO2 it can contain and will eventually lead to it being a source rather than a sink for CO2.