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QUACKGRASS ROOTS

Reason, Egoism, Capitalismspreading underground
______________________________________________________________________

Nobel trees
(Reprinted from Access to Energy, November 1993, Vol. 21, no. 3. Alas,
we lack the means to reproduce the figures which originally
accompanied it, and the typos are our own.)

Research in environmental science is edging ever closer to work
deserving of a Nobel Prize, but work of this quality is not being done
by scientists intent on "saving" the global environment. It is being
done by scientists whose work suggests a method of enhancement of the
global environment far above the highest level of quality that has
existed at any time during recorded human history.

Exemplary of this work is the paper by Sherwood B. Idso and Bruce A.
Kimball in the September 1993 issue of Global Biogeochemical Cycles,
7, No. 3, pp 537-555.

In a series of elegant experiments coupled with remarkable theoretical
work, Idso, Kimball, and their colleagues in Arizona and other
laboratories are gaining an understanding of the environmental effects
of the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. They have shown that a
large part of the carbon released from these below-ground sources is
rapidly incorporated into the tissues of plants and animals. So
efficient is the use of this carbon, especially by trees, that it is
reasonable to suggest that the total mass of plants and animals in the
global environment may be increased substantially through carbon
release into the atmosphere. Moreover, it now appears likely that the
release of carbon through the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas
during the past century has already increased the total mass of plants
and animals on the earth and contributed positively to the lush
environment that we now enjoy.

The two figures below [Missing here--QP] are adapted from the Idso and
Kimball paper. The first shows the volume of wood plus fruit rinds of
young sour orange trees grown at about 660 parts per million carbon
dioxide as compared with ordinary, ambient air which has about 360 ppm
CO2. After a year and a half the CO2 enriched trees maintained
over-all volumes about 2.8 times greater than the ambient trees.

This increase was not localized in any one above-ground part of the
trees during the first three years. It was proportional in all parts.
Moreover, by measuring roots in core samples taken in the soil
surrounding the trees, they determined that fine root volume was also
2.8 times larger. As the trees matured in years four and five, wood
production dropped toward a ratio of 2.0, but increased fruit
production brought the ratio back to 2.8. As of the fifth year, the
ratio of numbers of oranges was also approaching 2.8.

The second figure shows normalized measurements of photosynthesis and
respiration carried out on tree leaves during a four year period. The
unnormalized ambient values at about 360 ppm are 1.50 micromoles per
square meter-second of CO2 produced during respiration at night and
4.4 micromoles/square meter-sec net CO2 utilized during the day. Net
day values include day time photosynthetic utilization minus daytime
respiratory production. These values and those in the figure allow
independent calculation from leaf measurements alone of relative tree
growth rates, since carbon flow through the leaves determines the
total carbon content of the trees. The leaf calculation gives a value
of 2.8 which agrees with the measurements on whole trees.

Therefore, leaf measurements allow rapid extension of these tree
experiments to other CO2 levels and other species. Idso and Kimball
extended the measurements in this way to include three Australian
species of trees. Overall net growth calculated from leaf metabolism
rates of these three species was about the same as for sour orange
trees.

Predictions of growth at other CO2 levels can also be obtained from
these leaf measurements. Tripling the current ambient CO2 level, for
example, leads to 6.6 times faster growth. [The missing figure shows
growth rates rising linearly with CO2 levels over a range of 360 to
1000 ppm CO2!--QP]

Plants other than trees also increase in growth rate at higher CO2
concentrations, but the effect is smaller. Average increase of plants
other than trees in response to a 300 ppm CO2 increase is about 33% as
compared with 180% for trees. Tree leaf pores remain approximately the
same size at higher CO2 levels, whereas the pores of other plants tend
to become smaller at higher CO2 which probably accounts for this
difference.

Global atmospheric CO2 levels have been increasing substantially
during the past century as shown in the third figure. In 1650 the
level was 273 parts per million; in 1750 it was 277 ppm; in 1850 it
was 286 ppm; in 1950 it was 311 ppm; and in 1975 it ws 331 ppm. See
Idso, S. B., Carbon dioxide and Global Change: Earth in Transition,
IBR Press, Tempe, AZ, p. 8 (1989). In 1993 the atmospheric CO2 level
is about 360 ppm.

How are the earth's plants responding to this increase? Apparently
they love it. As atmospheric CO2 has increased, the vegetation-caused
seasonal cycle of atmospheric CO2 has increased in amplitude. During
the summer, plant photosynthesis utilizes more CO2 than in winter.
This difference can be used to calculate the amount of plant mass.

Therefore, average increase in seasonal variation over time can be
used to estimate the increase in plant volume for the entire earth.
This calculation shows an increase of 8.6% in the earth's vegetation
during the 20 year period between 1958 and 1978. See Pearman, G. I.
and Hyson, P., J. Geophys. Res., 86, pp. 9839-9843 (1981).

How does this compare with laboratory measurements on plants?
Perfectly. Using the increase in the annual global atmospheric CO2
between 1958 and 1978 of 19.7 ppm, laboratory measurments on trees and
other plants, and an estimate that 67% of the earth's photosynthesis
is carried out by trees (this is 75% of the 90% estimated as
terrestrial), Idso and Kimball have calculated the expected increase
in global plant growth. Their calculated value is 8.6%in complete
agreement with the Pearman and Hyson value which depends upon entirely
different facts and measurements.

Some additional subtleties in reconciling these values with the
complete literature on plant growth and CO2 are thoroughly covered by
Idso and Kimball in their paper as referenced above.

There is a direct proportion between the amount of plant mass and
animal mass in a large area of land. Therefore, there also must have
been a concomitant increase in animal life of about 8% between 1958
and 1978. Moreover, it is now 1993. There has been another 25 ppm
increase in CO2 since 1978. That would bring the expected increase in
the earth's trees, in accordance with two calculation methods, to
about 24% since 1958 as follows:

Using the values given in the September Access to Energy of 60 tons
per person of standing timber in the United States which is increasing
at 600 lbs. per person per year, we calculate an increased volume of
trees since 1958 of [(600)(35) / ((60)(2000) - (35)(600))][100%] =
21%. From the Idso-Kimball data we get (180%)(45) / (300) = 27%.
Actual forest inventories show a U. S. increase of 23% since 1958.

Can this continue? Idso has estimated that, at current rates of CO2
release, increased use by the increasing biomass will cause
atmospheric CO2 to level off about 170 ppm higher than the present
value. [Emphasis added--QP] Thus the increase in trees after 1993 is
(180%)(170) / (300) = 102%. Increase in other plants is (33%)(170) /
(300) = 19%. Total plants increase by (0.67%)(102%) + (0.33)(19%) =
75%. With projected increases in the use of coal, oil, and gas, this
percentage is higher.

The amount of plants and animals on the earth is going to double.

This incredible environmental gift is being accidentally given to
mankind by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas during the
industrial age. The only problem is that it is happening too slowly.
Most of us will not live to enjoy full effects of the lush environment
that is being produced. There is, however, an environmentally correct
answer: Burn the coal fields!

We don't need the coal anyway, since nuclear power is a safer, more
cost-effective way to generate electricity. Let's get that CO2 into
the atmosphere as quickly as possible, so we can all enjoy the
effects.

Wait! What about the detrimental effects of this "global greening?"
This is a plant and animal "population bomb" beyond former scientist
Ehrlich's wildest nightmares. The non-ethics of Gore's New Age is,
however, ready with an answer:

Non-human population bombs are OK.

Global temperature depends primarily on solar activity and not CO2
(another subject), but, even if all this new plant and animal life
cooks the planet, it does not matter. Everything "natural" is good as
long as natural is defined as non-human.

The plants and animals, those who cannot speak for themselves and
require pseudoenvironmentalist spokespersons, are voting with their
leaves. They say, "Burn the coal fields. Our people have been
imprisoned underground for too long already."

( © 1993 by Access to Energy. Reprinted under Dr. Robinson's blanket
permission to reprint "for useful purposes." Access to Energy is a
rich source of scientific news that rarely makes it into the poodle
press.)
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More Information at Carbon Dioxide-Climate Research Program. Follow
the link to the Sour Orange Tree CO2 Enrichment Project. 
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Notes and related links

* The facts that CO2 levels would level off if human CO2 emissions
were constant, and that the the more CO2 there is in the air, the
faster plants take it back out, tell us that atmospheric CO2
levels are under a form of feedback control. Here's a paper by
Peter Dietze which takes a control theory approach to CO2 levels,
focusing mainly on the ocean's vast capacity as a CO2 sink: Little
Warming with new Global Carbon Cycle Model. As the title suggests,
it offers no comfort to the greenhoaxers!
* Vincent Gray's The Airborne Fraction documents the declining ratio
between atmospheric CO2 uptake and human CO2 emissions.
* Jarl R. Ahlbeck D.Sc.(Chem Eng.) Abo Akademi University, Finland,
analyzed 26 years of CO2 measurements and human emissions data,
finding them both to be linear functions of time. He was able to
calculate the pre-industrial equilibrium level of CO2 (correctly)
as 280 ppm, although this was not part of his data. Projecting
forward, he finds "it is not probable that the atmospheric carbon
dioxide concentration will exceed 516 ppm during the next
century." (Feb/98)
* For related links, check out the environmental section of
Quackgrass Press' outside links page!
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