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CO2, GREEN HOUSE, AND SEA-LEVEL RISE

~ Twenty four years ago, 1991, I wrote a book : “US ENERGY POLICY, ‘SOS: Scared Ostrich Syndrome’ (A Dozen Years Closer to Doomsday)”

… you can read it FREE, it has been displayed online since 2008 at www.PetrolSOS.com

 ~ On page 8, I wrote then, “Already in my teenage years I became alarmed when I realized what would happen if all carbon trapped in the huge fossil reserves would –eventually- be released back into the atmosphere. Definitely it would be a primeval milieu, most likely not breathable for human beings. Actually, we would not have to wait until all fossil energy is burned. At current levels of production and consumption, and with explosive population growth across most of our planet, it will not take too many decades for us to be in a BIG ENVIRONMENTAL TROUBLE.

 ** In 2016 we reached 410 ppm (parts per million) of CO2, the highest ever in recorded human history, and it continues rising at a rate of 3.5 ppm/year , furthermore, the slope is not flat, but curving up (accelerating rate).

** This means that –if you do the math- in 200 years we would surpass 1000 ppm, level that is considered toxic by OSHA (when you are permanent submerged breathing that foul air). Seniors, children, and people with asthma will have trouble breathing at even lower level.

~ Solar energy, and good batteries is the answer, so it has been quite interesting to read the technological progress made in batteries (thanks to Elon Musk and his companies). Great man!

** Be aware that CO2 is the culprit! It is the cause of those grave threats stalking our planet. CO2 is a "green-house gas", which means that allows "visible" solar radiation to pass through but reflects back to Earth the heat produced by those photons striking the land ("infrared" radiation), causing the “GREENHOUSE EFFECT” that has been cooking our sister planet, Venus.

~ Greenhouse causes average temperatures to rise, thus causing the melting of glaciers as well as “sea-level rise”.  Oceans are currently rising at 3 mm / year and picking up (you can read more about this on one of my “science beacon” websites (like wwww.DoomedGlobe.com, which has been online for about a decade). Although this flooding  is a huge problem for lowlands all over the globe, it would take 1000 years to get to 5m flooding (about 15 feet).  Yet, for every feet of rise in sea-level the ocean moves 19 feet inland (on average).  Much faster if land is flat and at sea level.

~ Analyzing the CO2 in "ice-cores" drilled from Antarctica we know that in a million years its level had never been so high (mammals have been on Earth for about 5 to 10 million years). Primitive humans inhabited the planet about 3 million years ago.

~ By other means of investigation, we know that during the Carboniferous, Silurian, Devonian and so forth, the CO2 was much higher (5000 ppm level). That level would be extremely toxic for us, but plants (Carboniferous) or fish and mollusks (in the Silurian and Devonian) who lived in water did not have a problem with the high level of CO2 either.

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~ I used to teach 'Paleontology' to my students in the 'Earth Science' class, even in the 'Integrated Science' class, and also gave some notions of it to my 'Physics' students (when allowed to do so).  That important it is!   I noticed they knew nothing about this critical subject, as if it was a post-graduate topic.  Unfortunately, I was the only teacher covering Paleontology, which not even was in the FCAT requirements.

~ Other colleagues did not realize the importance of having our students informed about those important scientific concepts.  Sometimes parents would object, due to the fact that you need to teach this in conjunction with 'Evolution'!

~ One of the reasons I would like to be in Congress is to fix our poor 'science literacy' in the Public School system (often due to conflict with religious folk).  I was reprimanded by Principals on several occasions, often opting for leaving rather than changing my instruction.

~ Notice that the graph presented here encompasses not 1,000,000 years, but 600,000,000 years (600 times longer).  You can see that the temperature never exceeded by much 24 degrees Celsius (otherwise fauna, and much of the flora would have succumbed).  Yet the CO2 content of the air was as high as 7000 ppm during the Cambrian (a period where plants grew to huge size).  Plants die if CO2 is less than 200 ppm, but the more CO2 the better.

~ This 'lower the CO2' message has been inserted in some of my signs.  Lowering the CO2 has been my main focus -and motivation- during the 2002 political campaign, and has been my motor as well during this 2016 campaign.

~ It is sad to see lawyers, and other individuals -who do not have much vision on these critical environmental issues (and often are totally science-illiterate)  getting their candidacies supported by many political organizations while my campaign is near collapse for lack of contributions and support.  :O(

~ I did all I could, given the terrible obstacles!  :O|

In 2016 we are now at almost 410 ppm (parts per million of CO2)

Notice in graph that 400 ppm of CO2 is yet an acceptable level, but 1000 ppm is toxic if submerged for good in that foul air.

Going back almost 1,000,000 years, we know how high was the temperature and the CO2 concentration in the air. We are at a peak for both factors.

Our human body tolerates about 450 ppm normally, and if for a limited time (like a few hours in a class room) we can support more than 2000 ppm. 

But if permanently breathing foul air, we cannot be at higher than 600 ppm. Toxic level is 1000, yet children and seniors do not have that kind of tolerance, especially if they suffer from asthma and other respiratory problems.  In a matter of 100 years a lot of people will have to use masks.

At the rate we are going it is projected we will be at 550 ppm by 2050, and 1000 ppm by 2100.

Significant flooding (due to sea-level rise) will be with us in 2200, but 'foul air' will arrive much sooner (and yet this fact escapes the attention of many scientists who only talk about global warming and global flooding).

Since the late 1970's, I have been a watchdog about this problem, and for the most part I have been ignored .  I feel the same way with the 'sediments' of Lake 'O'.  I have been pressing for those sediments to be seeing as the culprit (of those discharges of fresh water to the estuaries).

But, I am alone! As it has been the case for decades. The press, colleagues, politicians and others do not understand my insistence, trying -for decades- to bring the subject to the fore line.

The models used to estimate future CO2 content of the air are based in 1800 (at the advent of the Industrial Era) and -as you can see- the curve fitting is exponential, although the slope during a period of just a few decades might look flat (linear).

As time progresses, if nothing is being done to palliate the problem (normally referred as 'Business as Usual model') then by 2100 we will be at the toxic level of 1000 ppm.  What is worse, in just 34 years we would be at 550 ppm, which would be very uncomfortable for most of us.  The time to use some kind of mask is just around the corner.

  

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Candidate:  John Xuna (also Juan and Xoán)

 P.O.Box 426, Port Salerno, FL 34992   <<-- to write to candidate or donations

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