Word: co2
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...estimate for sure the ocean's ability to absorb CO2. But man's future may depend on it. Concludes Revelle: "Man is moving and shaking the great globe itself in spite of himself. We may be disastrously changing the climate...
...This information does not mean (as many science-fiction writers seem to think) that Venus under its clouds is covered with lush jungles. Earthside plants need carbon dioxide, but their flourishing presence on earth is the reason why the earth's modern atmosphere contains only a trace of CO2. This abundance of carbon dioxide in the Venusian atmosphere is excellent proof that the planet has no earthlike plants...
With the oxygen circuit closed, and their metabolism rising with exertion, they sent the CO2 level soaring at a rate of 1% a minute (normal at sea level: about one-thirtieth of 1%). In ten minutes, the C02 level was nudging 12%. This .was about the limit. But Dr. Balke found that his conditioned subjects kept full consciousness longer than lowlanders. Also, they sensed more quickly (thanks to training) the reflexes that indicate the onset of CO2 giddiness. So they would have more time to do something about it. Aside from advantages in regard to the bends and CO2...
Chain of Effects. In the future, if the blanket of CO2 produces a temperature rise of only one or two degrees, a chain of secondary effects may come into play. As the air gets warmer, sea water will get warmer too, and CO2 dissolved in it will return to the atmosphere. More water will evaporate from the warm ocean, and this will increase the greenhouse effect of the CO2. Each effect will reinforce the other, possibly raising the temperature enough to melt the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland, which would flood the earth's coastal lands...
...Revelle has not reached the stage of warning against this catastrophe, but he and other geophysicists intend to keep watching and recording. During the International Geophysical Year (1957-58), teams of scientists will take inventory of the earth's CO2 and observe how it shifts between air and sea. They will try to find out whether the CO2 blanket has been growing thicker, and what the effect has been. When all their data have been studied, they may be able to predict whether man's factory chimneys and auto exhausts will eventually cause salt water to flow...