Word: co2
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Tons of CO2. The temperature of the earth's surface depends largely on two minor constituents of the atmosphere: water vapor and carbon dioxide. They are transparent to the short-wave energy (light and near infrared) that comes from the sun, but opaque to most of the long-wave heat radiation that tries to return to space. This "greenhouse effect" traps heat and makes the earth's surface considerably warmer than it would be if the atmosphere had no water vapor or carbon dioxide in it. An increase in either constituent would make it warmer still. Warm eras...
...equilibrium with living plants and sea water (which tends to dissolve it). Up to 1860, man's fires added only about 500 million tons per year, and the atmosphere had no trouble in getting rid of this small amount. But each year more furnaces and engines poured CO2 into the atmosphere. In 1900, the amount was 3 billion tons. By 1950, it was 9 billion tons. By 2010, if present trends continue, 47 billion tons of carbon dioxide will enter the air each year...
This will be only 2% of the total carbon dioxide, but if it is more than can be dissolved by the oceans or absorbed by plants or minerals, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere will tend to increase. The greenhouse effect will be intensified. Some scientists believe that this is the cause of recent warming of the earth's climate. Dr. Revelle has his doubts...
...stops when a plant is in darkness. In fact it runs backward. A plant respires (breathes) like an animal, absorbing oxygen and giving off carbon dioxide, and biologists have assumed that the plant respires in sunlight, too. No one could prove it, however, because the effect of respiration (CO2 given off) is masked by the effect of photosynthesis (CO2 absorbed). The difficulty of measuring the daytime respiration rate is called "Rabinowitch's nightmare."* For years it haunted biologists, who compared it to the problem of finding out if the refrigerator light is shining after the door is closed. Last...
...where the currents are moving upward (as they do in the earth's doldrums), the fine yellow dust that forms the clouds of Venus is carried high. Where the currents move downward, the dust deck is lower, and above it lies a greater thickness of carbon dioxide. The CO2 reflects violet light better than the dust does, and this makes the down-current zones photograph brighter than the others. In light of longer wave length, the bands are invisible...