The Carbon Bridge

Today, carbon dioxide is getting a really bad rap as the greenhouse gas that is causing global warming. What happens is that the earth absorbs radiation from the sun and then radiates it back into space at different wavelengths.

However, the CO2 in the air acts in the same way as the glass in a greenhouse. It allows some wavelengths to pass through but blocks others. Both glass and CO2 allow the wavelengths of radiant energy that come from the sun to pass through but block those that the earth radiates back into space. The result is steady warming.

I would like to point out something that I realized is vital to the ecosystem about carbon dioxide. We already know how important it is in that the carbon in the structure of plants comes from the CO2 in the air. Plants do the opposite of creatures, they take in CO2, split the carbon from the oxygen by photosynthesis, send the oxygen back into the air and use the carbon for nourishment. Also, without the greenhouse effect of modeate amounts of carbon dioxide in the air, much of the earth would be too cold to inhabit.

I would like to point out today how the carbon dioxide in the air has become even more vital over the past 150 years or so.

There are two great ecosystems on the earth, that of the land and that of the sea. Considering how vast each system is, there is relatively little interaction between the two. All life, plant or animal, is based on the element carbon. Oxygen is much more plentiful but life relies on carbon for it's complex molecular structure. Incredibly, carbon is capable of forming 35 times more different molecules than all of the other hundred or so elements combined. Every very complex molecule is based on carbon.

In the past 150 years the human population of the world has exploded. This has changed the relationship between the ecosystems of land and sea like never before in the earth's history. We have taken endless millions of tons of seafood from the sea. This process is permanently removing carbon from circulation in the biosphere of the sea. The taking of seafood would eventually deplete the sea of the carbon upon which life is based, since there is no real way for the carbon to get back to the sea from land in significant quantities. This is not just depleting fish populations which can recover but permanently removing the material necessary for life.

This concept is related to the posting "The Bone To Flesh Ratio" earlier in this blog. Fortunately for the sea, the carbon dioxide in the air forms a "bridge" by which large amounts of carbon that was taken from the sea in seafood can find it's way back to the sea. CO2 is a heavy molecule that easily dissolves in water so that the carbon will become part of the structure of aquatic plants which may be eaten by fish. The CO2 in the air may be responsible for global warming but it is also the only real way that carbon can find it's way back to the sea from land.