Civil Defense Perspectives 34(4): July 2019 (published October 2019)
The carbon cycle on earth involves the atmosphere, the oceans, the biosphere, and the lithosphere. Today’s panicked schoolchildren crusade for the cause of keeping it (carbon-based “fossil” fuels) in the ground, or for sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and pumping it below ground, purportedly to keep it from frying the planet or acidifying the oceans.
In fact, there is a natural mechanism for sequestering CO2: living organisms in the ocean. One hundred million billion tons of carbon have been taken up by coccolithophores (phytoplankton), shellfish, corals and foraminifera (zooplankton) over the past 160 million years, according to Patrick Moore, speaking at the 37th annual meeting of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. These organisms incorporate carbon into calcium carbonate plates, scales, or shells. Over the long-term, these become a carbon sink as they fall to the bottom of the ocean and become part of the sediment. The level of atmospheric CO2 has fallen steadily from about 2,500 ppmv to the current level of less than 400 ppmv over this period—perilously close to the 150 ppmv level that spells the death of plants.
Continue reading “Saving the World from CO2 Starvation”