Deep Time: Nat. Academy Press

[Essay]

Just fyi....

 

By the end of this century, without a reduction in emissions, atmospheric CO2 is projected to increase to levels that Earth has not experienced for more than 30 million years.

 

--p.5

 

 

This is from:

 

Understanding Earth's Deep Past: Lessons for Our Climate Future (2011)

Board on Earth Sciences and Resources (BESR)

Division on Earth and Life Studies (DELS)

National Academies Press

 

 

This fascinating journey into "Deep Time" is worth a look, and it is free!

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13111&page=5

 

http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13111

 

Authors:

Committee on the Importance of Deep-Time Geologic Records for Understanding Climate Change Impacts; National Research Council of the National Academies; BESR, DELS

 

Description:

"There is little dispute within the scientific community that humans are changing Earth's climate on a decadal to century time-scale. .... In Understanding Earth's Deep Past, the National Research Council reports that rocks and sediments that are millions of years old hold clues to how the Earth's future climate would respond in an environment with high levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases."

 

"Understanding Earth's Deep Past provides an assessment of both the demonstrated and underdeveloped potential of the deep-time geologic record to inform us about the dynamics of the global climate system. The report describes past climate changes, and discusses potential impacts of high levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases on regional climates, water resources, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, and the cycling of life-sustaining elements."

 

From the book:

 

"Notably, the deep-time record indicates that the mechanisms and feedbacks in the modern ice-house climate system, which have controlled tropical temperatures and a high pole-to-equator thermal gradient, may not straightforwardly apply in warmer worlds, suggesting that additional feedbacks probaby operated under warmer mean temperatures."

--p.9

 

The integration of deep-time paleoclimatology into environmental science curricula offers an additional opportunity to convey the relevance of the deep-time record."

--p.13

 

"The deep-time record uniquely archives the processes and feedbacks that influence the hydrological cycle in a warmer world, including the effect of high-latitude unipolar glaciation or ice-free conditions on regional precipitation patterns in lower latitudes."

--p.10

 

 

...so to reprise the (page 5) highlight...

 

{NOTE: ...Biochar helps tropical soils become more productive, as well as conserving productivity in temperate soils ...even as they become increasingly assaulted by the weather.}

 

...about living in a time before temperate soils developed, and heavily leached, tropical soils predominated. Yikes!

....

 

"By the end of this century, without a reduction in emissions, atmospheric CO2 is projected to increase to levels that Earth has not experienced for more than 30 million years."

 

 

~Remember: Fire oxidizes carbon; Pyrolysis reduces carbon!