Earth's Carbon

            In order to understand carbon dioxide,  global warming and man's role in it we need to model the Earth with respect to carbon.  We can best do that with an inventory of the element rather than the oxide as carbon exists in several molecular forms in our atmosphere, the soil and deep rock.  In the top area of the model we will show the amounts of carbon in the atmosphere, where it is the familiar dioxide, in the soil where it is found in carbohydrates, deeper in the soil where it is found in hydrocarbons.  And, we will deal with the  amounts that change locations every year for the recent period for which data exists and because the modern era has more bearing on our reality than the distant past or far future.

          The figures are largely from "The Carbon Dioxide Question" by George M. Woodwell in the Scientific American publication "Energy and Environment," 1980 edition.  We have translated his figures, originally in grams, to "gigatons," billion tons and express the quantities exponentially.  Note that 10^9 means 1 followed by nine zeros or one billion, 1,000,000,000.  This is a huge quantity, but the important points will be how can these change and what will it mean?
 

Annual Production

     In the air - 700 x 10^9 gigatons    From man - 5 x 10^9 gigatons/yr

     Oceans - 2.5 x 10^9 gigatons    Forest decay - 6 x 10^9 gigatons/yr

                         From Respiration - 50 x 10^9 gigatons/yr
                                                           
                         Other Sources -  7 x 10^9 gigatons/yr
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    Vegetation - 827 X 10^9 gigatons          Marine Life - 2 x 10^9 gigatons

     Humus  - 3000 X 10^9   Dissolved Organie Matter - 30 x 10^9 gigatons

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Deep Subsoil/Below Thermocline (Inactive)

 Fossil Fuel - 5,000 x 10^9 gigatons    Dissolved Organic Matter - 3000 x 10^9

                             Deep Ocean - 38,000,000 x 10^9 gigatons
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Ocean Bottom Sediments

As Carbonates - 20,000,000 x 10^9 gigatons

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      We can see that man is a very small, virtually microscopic, player in the production of CO2 and that the amount of it in the atmosphere could change very rapidly if the deep ocean and its sediments were disturbed by a volcanic  activity cycle.  This is the disaster movie scenario of all time with all animal strangled by carbon dioxide which is not poisonous, but suffocating.  Then the green plants take over, evolve into intelligent species and screw up their world with an elected class much as we have fumbled our time.

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