Climate Letter #1522

A new report from Deep Carbon Observatory has all kinds of information about where carbon is located on the planet and how it comes and goes over time as it completes the carbon cycle.  All the data is here, with clear explanations and some extra commentary.  “Carbon, the basis of all life and the energy source vital to humanity, moves through this planet from its mantle to the atmosphere. To secure a sustainable future, it is of utmost importance that we understand Earth’s entire carbon cycle.”

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Experiments show that microbes in soil release more carbon when soils warm, less when they cool (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute).  The tests were performed by moving soil cores up and down the slopes of a mountain over a 3000 meter range, at four different sites.  “Our study clearly shows that global warming is likely to create a powerful positive feedback loop, as the microbes and enzymes they synthesize that thrive under warmer conditions release even more carbon from the soil into the atmosphere…..If one accepts the current projections of a 4 to 8 degree Celsius increase in global temperatures during the next century, tropical soils could cause roughly a 9% increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide this century.”
–Comment:  This is the kind of longer-term feedback that Earth Systems scientists worry about, much as they do concerning the possible results of melting permafrost, but find difficult to quantify on a global scale.
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Another new study looked at the way root growth affects the storage of carbon in different soils (Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory).  “This study showed that root activity in relatively young soils could result in carbon being stored by forming new associations between minerals and organic carbon compounds. In contrast, continued root activity in older soils may disrupt existing associations and cause carbon to be released as climate-active carbon dioxide. The results of this study could help scientists determine which soils can better store carbon at depth and which may be vulnerable to carbon loss.”
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A giant iceberg has broken away from the coast of East Antarctica (BBC News).  It’s an entirely natural event, unrelated to climate change, but still exciting to observe because of its massive size, equal to 640 square miles
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The link between climate change and economic growth—a story that needs more telling (The Conversation CA).  Written by a Canadian professor of communication who has done the research to come up with this conclusion:  “Thoughtful and well-researched scholarship makes clear that economic growth and environmental crises are related. And yet non-academic writing linking endless growth economics and climate change is almost non-existent.”  She makes a good case, and, in a more offhand way, I would certainly agree.  The fixation on economic growth as government policy only began in the mid-20th century, or about the same time the current uninterrupted warming trend became a reality.
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How important are airplane flights according to those who take them? (Daily Mail).  “International researchers looked at more than 500 flights spanning a total of more than 21.36 million miles and asked people to rate how important each flight was…..as many as half of all flights are not perceived by the traveller to be of particular importance.” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7520409/Nearly-HALF-flights-deemed-unimportant-pointless-people-taking-them.html?
Carl

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