Environment

Is the 'plants love CO2' theory valid? Plants use CO2 from the atmosphere to grow.  It follows that more CO2 will promote more growth.  That is the gist of the 'plants love CO2' theory.  But is the theory valid? In a recent article I argued that Plants Can't Sequester Excess CO2.In this article I examine the matter further. If it is true that plants will adapt to rising CO2 levels by absorbing more CO2 then there are logical consequences to be expected.  One way to test a theory is to show the expected consequences of the theory and compare that with observed experimental…

Why Plants Can't Sequester Excess CO2 Plants love CO2, right? More CO2 makes plants grow more, right? It follows that a global rise in atmospheric CO2 will produce healthier plants globally, right? Wrong!  Wrong!  Wrong! Try this simple experiment.  Place a paper towel on a work surface.  Add water a drop at a time.  At first the paper will absorb every drop of water.  Eventually, though, there must come a time when the paper is so loaded with water that any excess is not absorbed.  This illustrates a fundamental principle of all systems: any excess input…

I think that most of the tiger conservation projects in India have not done very well because of corruption. The import and exportation of tiger parts is a sizable business but just try to imagine the dynamics of such a business. Just think of a typical government employee – he chooses to be corrupt (and helps the poachers) just to earn some money- and how much money is that ? Not much! Just imagine that he gets the same money ( or slightly more money than that) from the Indian government as an increased salary. Now, will he help the poachers? Not at all- why should he help them…

Federal Regulators Allowed Oil Companies To Decide Safety Issues I noted in my recent article Oil Spills And Troubled Waters: When safety depends on the ability to shut down a system by blocking a fluid flow it is absolutely imperative that the system should incorporate 'fail safe' design principles: the system should fail into the safest possible state. The most widely known fail safe devices are fuses and circuit breakers.  It is basic common sense that a fault condition should shut off power rather than risk fire or electrocution. Here in the UK, every house has a water shut-off valve…

Despite ongoing threats to rain forests in the Amazon and Congo river basins, researchers studying the latest satellite data say that the greatest loss in forest cover from 2000 to 2005 wasn’t in rain forests, but in boreal forests in places like North America. Their new study in PNAS found that losses were greatest in boreal forests, followed by humid tropical, dry tropical and temperate forests. “This study quantifies all stand-replacement disturbances regardless of land use,” said South Dakota State University professor Matt Hansen, co-director of SDSU’s Geographic Information Science…

Arctic Ice May 2010 The Arctic melt, already more rapid than average this year, has begun to accelerate. I have no doubt that by the end of this month, May 2010, there will be much less sea ice than there was in May 2007. I have no doubt either that the anti-science propagandists will continue to insist either that the ice is recovering or that Arctic melt is perfectly normal. The 4th IPCC report has been attacked by some people as being agendist and alarmist. Accusations have been made that data has been deliberately manipulated to make things look worse than they really are.  With…

Wild WellsCaution: satire alert! The current slight mishap in the Gulf of Mexico is just another oil spill. So says BP and the media, and we all know we can trust them to be honest and ethical. The Gulf disaster is not an oil spill - it's a wild well.  I hate weasel words1. The former CEO of BP put BP on a path towards green energy.  When CEO Tony Hayward took over he promised to focus on safety.  He scrapped all of that green energy nonsense.  After all, the proper course of action for a company genuinely concerned about its green credentials is to take the money wasted…

As concern grows after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico two weeks ago, scientists are monitoring the situation closely with ESA's Envisat radar data. The spill still appears relatively confined around its point of origin and is still north of the Loop Current, a powerful conveyor belt that circulates clockwise around the Gulf toward Florida before being joining the powerful Gulf Stream. Some researchers have expressed concerned that the Loop Current could soon catch the oil slick and drag it south towards coral reefs in the Florida Keys. By combining…

The UN-requested review of the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is to beheaded by Harold T. Shapiro, former president of Princeton. Shapiro, along with 11 others, will analyse “IPCC policies and the procedures by which it prepares its assessments of climate change”, in the wake of the so-called ‘climate-gate’ incident where leaked emails from a British researcher were construed to cast doubt on the science of global warming by some. “We approach this review with an open mind,” Shapiro said in a statement. “I’m confident we have the experts on this committee necessary to…

Trees help keep the planet cool, but rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are preventing them from performing this very important function. According to a new study in PNAS, in some regions more than a quarter of the warming from increased carbon dioxide is due to its direct impact on vegetation. This warming is in addition to carbon dioxide's better-known effect as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. The new paper highlights the importance of including plants in the models that forecast future climate change. Map of globe shows percentage of predicted warming due to the direct…