New and improved! This is the first in a series of group posts (mob blogging) by a few bloggers who are interested in the science of climate change. As a first topic, we have chosen the carbon cycle. All of us encourage comments and discussion. We will happily cross-post and feature comments that we think add value to the mob. There will also be a links to other resources on the carbon cycle that the mob and the mice thinks are really, really good. In addition to this post:
Eli Rabett at Rabett Run has a fascinating post about the cycling of carbon between atmosphere, oceans, and land, and the actual dynamics of how carbon moves around among the various reservoirs. He discusses a simple and comprehensible model and offers the interested reader a spreadsheet for calculations.
Meanwhile, Maribo ponders the question, “Where does all the carbon go?”
I’d like to tackle the question, just how fast is CO2 increasing in earth’s atmosphere, really? I’ve posted about CO2 in the atmosphere before, about its history and present rate of increase. Very recent developments indicate that the rate of change of atmospheric CO2 may accelerate; while emissions from human activity have increased, the ability of the oceans and biosphere to absorb CO2 may be poised to decrease. In this post I’d like to discuss the most current information about CO2 levels and trends. In particular, I’d like to give you a good estimate of the present rate of increase of atmospheric CO2, and show you how I arrived at that estimate.
