The mechanism here proposed to explain the cycle of glaciation does not depend in any way upon the particular numbers assumed for illustrative purposes. Such oscillations will occur whenever the temperature during one phase of the cycle falls low enough to cause ice sheets to grow and during another phase rises high enough to cause them to melt. A change in the comparatively small volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere provides ample leeway to swing the temperature past either extreme. The oscillation is reinforced by the accompanying change in the earth's humidity. A colder atmosphere holds less water vapor, and so further reduces the atmospheric absorption of infrared radiation emitted by the earth's surface. At the same time, however, the earth's cloud cover thickens and precipitation increases despite the reduction in the water-vapor burden of the atmosphere. The top of a cloud is cooled by the radiation of heat into space; when there is less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, cloud tops lose more heat energy and thus become colder. With a steeper temperature gradient there is increased convection within the cloud. The result is larger clouds and more precipitation. Moreover, since the cloud cover reflects the sun's visible radiation back into space, less solar energy reaches the earth, and the temperature falls still lower.
The geological record indicates that the huge capacity of the biosphere to store and turn over carbon dioxide has also had its effect upon climatic change. We know that plants borrow 60 billion tons of carbon dioxide yearly for photosynthesis. Under present conditions the organic world repays nearly all of this debt each year via respiration and decay. The formation of new fossil fuel deposits withholds at most only 100 million tons of carbon dioxide, or less than .2 per cent of the annual amount used for photosynthesis. At one time, however, the withdrawals were much larger. During the Carboniferous period, when most of the coal and oil deposits were formed, about 1014 tons of carbon dioxide were withdrawn from the atmosphere–ocean system. This staggering loss must have dropped the earth's temperature to chilly levels indeed; it is not surprising that the gigantic glaciers that moved across the earth after this period were perhaps the most extensive in history.
The present capacity of plants to consume carbon dioxide in photosynthesis gives us an interesting clue to the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere in bygone ages. Plants are almost perfectly adapted to the spectral range and intensity of the light they receive, yet they grow far more rapidly and luxuriantly in an atmosphere that contains five to 10 times the present carbon dioxide concentration; in fact, florists sometimes release tankfuls of carbon dioxide in greenhouses to promote plant growth. The present carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere must therefore be unusually low. Apparently plant evolution was keyed to some much higher concentration in the atmosphere of the geologic past. This hypothesis is also supported by the known fact that the earth's climate was warmer during most of geologic time; presumably the atmosphere then contained a much higher percentage of carbon dioxide.
Much of the carbon dioxide in the atmospheres of past geologic epochs now lies buried in the carbon dioxide reservoir of the earth itself. The earth's hot springs and volcanoes pour about 100 million tons of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere per year. The earth in turn recaptures approximately the same amount each year by the weathering of rocks. But this equilibrium is upset during periods of mountain-building. In fact, the carbon dioxide theory provides an essential link to explain the timing of the last two glacial epochs with respect to the mountain-building periods that preceded them.
At least several million years intervened between the climax of these mountain-building episodes and the formation of the great ice sheets. If glaciation was brought on only by the elevation of the land or by the slight darkening of the sky with the dust of volcanoes, there should have been no great time lag before the onset of the glaciers, But these upheavals exposed large quantities of igneous rock to the chemical action of the minute amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolved in the rain water that washed over them, Over millions of years the weathering of the rock trapped vast quantities of carbon dioxide from the air. With the atmospheric concentration reduced sufficiently, the temperature fell, permitting the young mountains to provide natural birthplaces for the glaciers that then crept across the earth.
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9 Comments
Add CommentOh god, get ready for a bombardment of proactive naysayers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLets see how many ways they can shoot down the statistical data yet again presented to them by unbiased minds.
That was a pretty cool article. Not only did it give us a unique look backward it gave us a fresh look forward; and it was enjoyable reading too. I was twelve years old when that was written. The streets of my home town were dusty and just about every vehicle and smoke stack was a choker. Those things a much improved now, none the less global co2 volume increases. In fifty years this scenario may repeat its self and a reader will write things are better now but co2 volumes continue to increase.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is good that mankind works to clean up the environment because it makes our earth a more enjoyable place to live regardless of whether we can put off the next ice age or not.
Great summary on the subject! .A good conclusion from it may be trying to reduce the amount of fuel spent on transport by bringing down the size of cars, and that of housing and industry by using isolation and more efficient heating and cooling systems. Fusion energy is on its way and the future may be not so bad. By the way: how about the decrease in gases solubility in water when sea temperature raises? Regards
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Science progresses, funeral by funeral." _ Max Planck
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPlease no more CO2. Before the time CO2 really does become a problem mankind will have switched to something else, hopefully fusion. Not to save the planet which in the words of George Carlin "ISN'T GOING ANYWHERE", but because we really need the energy - hundreds and thousands of times more than we are currently using. I hope when this global warming hoax is finally totally exposed and Al Gore receives his true title of CON MAN OF THE MILLENIUM that your readers remember how willingly Scientific American promoted this HOAX. Your publication doesn't have the journalistic integrity of the National Enquirer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCO2 can't be a green house gas on earth because it absorbs infrared radiation at wavelengths that are not radiated by the earths surface. In the article it says CO2 absorbs infrared radiation in the range 13-17 microns - this corresponds to a surface temperature of about -100 celcius to -73 celcius - there is nowhere that cold on earth. Most of the earths surface is at about 17 celcius - this radiates at about 10.5 microns, CO2 is transparent to infrared radiation at that wave length.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScience doesn't change, politics changes science. It's refreshing to see that back in 1959, studies involving CO2 and temperature were not biased by current global warming alarmists.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLet's face it, the Earth are far more supreme an one step ahead of man. Let's focus on man's detrimental impact on the environment and not global warming.
From the Wiki link about John Tyndall:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"He was the first to correctly measure the infrared absorptive powers of the gases nitrogen, oxygen, water vapour, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, etc.
He concluded that water vapour is the strongest absorber of radiant heat in the atmosphere and is the principal gas controlling air temperature.
Absorption by the bulk of the other gases is negligible.
Prior to Tyndall it was widely surmised that the Earth's atmosphere has a Greenhouse Effect, but he was first to prove it.
The proof was that water vapor strongly absorbed infrared radiation."
Now - how are they going to tax water vapor?
First, John Tyndall stated that water vapor was the main gas blocking photons from escaping into space. CO2 was in the "bulk of the other gases" with negligible absorption. Thus, CO2 has a negligible effect on global warming.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSecond, notice that CO2 blocks all 15-micron photons. This means that more CO2 cannot block more photons since they are all blocked already.
Third, we should not forget that photons in sunlight at 15-microns are also blocked, thus cooling the Earth's surface in the daytime.