How It All Ends: Mechanics of GCC (pt 2 of 3)

****OOOPS! (4/4/08) Commentors guffpot and DavidSChandler caught a couple errors I made during my RedBull-fueled exposition. guffpot correctly pointed out that I compared 200 years vs. 300 million years incorrectly. Those two numbers are apples and oranges, because the carbon we transfer from the ground to the air in 200 years was not stored over a period of 300 million years--it was stored FOR 300 million years, and but was actively sequestered over a time period probably much shorter. Really, it would be more proper to compare the 200 years it's taking us to transfer from the ground to the air to the time period it took to transfer it from the air to the ground. If anyone can find a credible figure for that, please message me directly, and I'll include it here.

DavidSChandler caught that I was off by a factor of 100 in my scale model comparison of 200 years to 300 million years. If my line on the board is 200 years, then 300 million years ago would be about 10 miles--not 1000 miles--to the left. Turns out I forgot to convert from cm to m in my quick calculation. My bad. It's especially ironic because I'm constantly warning my students against making that same exact mistake! Ha! The joke's on me. I guess it just goes to show you--you can always be wrong. . .******

Part of the "Expansion Pack" of videos accompanying the video "How It All Ends." See "How It All Ends: Index" for a roadmap to guide you through the expansion pack.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• global
• warming
• climate
• change
• controversy
• carbon
• debate
• risk
• management
• how
• it
• all
• ends

[greyflcn]

"Number I got here are from Nasa"

So where specifically can I get these numbers used?

Are these the numbers used?

nasa. gov/ centers/langley/news/researche­rnews/rn_carboncycle.html

[wonderingmind42]

Yeah. That's the graph I pulled the numbers from. If anybody has a better source for me, please send me a message directly to my YouTube account, letting me know.

[wonderingmind42]

Please see the video description for a summary of a couple errors that commentors have caught.

[ExtremeMorphs]

I have to say its funny that anyone who posts a refute, can not justify, or prove with any facts. And the only people that have had valid problems with your video chastised minor discrepancies rather than your factual information. I have to say, I was a fence sitter until yesterday about global warming. This Video series is really important, and should get on Teli!

[WharfRat0A54]

Regarding the mystery 2 gtc , 1 gtc to terrestrial sink, leaving 1 gtc unknown. Dalton's law of partial pressure suggests the oceanic sink rate will increase as atmosheric CO2 increases. This may account for some, or all of the mystery 1 gtc. But, as mentioned, the equilibrium point in this cycle is unkown as yet.

[gopc32]

Now that's just ridiculous, he's wearing a clown hat!

[lars008]

eat well excersize,,, die anyway,,,

spend tons of money on idiotic social issues,,, die anyway,,,

Sun remains a main sequence star, continually growing warmer and brighter by ~10% every 1 billion years.

no matter what you do,,, the sun will GET you in the end,,,

unless you LEAVE,,, that is where mankind needs to spend its money,,,

on LEAVING,,,

[skaruts]

@wonderingmind42

About the missing sink, I believe you forgot to assign some of it to the plants, as I believe it would be, according to the rest.

Also, could it be possible that the remaining CO2 from the missing sink could join up with the amount of energy that goes out of the atmosphere?

[PUFFTHEMAGICMARMOT]

Ice core samples would suggest a rythmic fluctuation of CO2, and we are not near the high end. We are about due for a heavier concentration, so you may need a sillier hat soon.

Furthermore, we have the technology to limit carbon release, but our corporo-fascist republicrat grease stains keep us on a high oil diet, and we are constantly bombarded by propaganda suggesting nothing is wrong with our way of life. Yeah. Your gonna need a way sillier hat...

[lin545]

WTF GCC=Gnu Compiler Collection. Its cross-platform compiler, for christs sake...

[hopteavy]

I was wondering if the conversion of biomass into human population (exponential growth) was already accounted for in this model?

[sloth0306]

i think i may have figured it out. the 0.2 GtC is not literally the carbon turning to oil and coal. just the intial start of the process. i.e trees and dead animal matter being buried under sediment.

[PharmGateway]

I have created a simple, but useful page, which has all the links to this series of videos listed in the correct order.

The site name is of the standard format with the usual (US) extension after the dot. The site name is then followed by a forward slash and the name of the page, so the first word is my site name and the second bit is the page name (but you need to put D O T h t m on the end).

pharmgateway howitallends