Is the Gulf stream getting weaker? Part I

The characteristics of water are as I said relatively unique. The fact that it is at its heaviest at +4 degrees Celsius is one reason for the formation of the Gulf Stream.

The Gulf Stream is a crucial part of Earth's complex system of air and water currents. It brings the hot water from the area around the Gulf of Mexico, which has given it its name all the way up to the waters east of Grönland. On it’s way north in the Atlantic sea it passes the North west coast of Africa, British Isles, west coast of Norway and Iceland.

Once up in the Arctic the stream is cooled off. The lower temperature means that the water may have get higher salinity. Low temperatures and high salinity increases the density of the water and it begins to sink. When the water sinks towards the bottom it creates space for new water on the surface and presto, we have one of the driving forces behind the formation of the current.

More will come

Madden Julian Oscillation(MJO) and the El Niño-Southern oscillation(ENSO)

There is strong variability in MJO activity from year to year. There are long periods of strong activity followed by periods in which the oscillation is weak or absent.

This interannual variability of the MJO is partly linked to the ENSO cycle!!

In the Pacific, strong MJO activity is often observed 6 – 12 months prior to the onset of an El Niño episode, but is virtually absent during the maxima of some El Niño episodes.

MJO activity is typically greater during a La Niña episode. Strong events in the Madden–Julian oscillation over a series of months in the western Pacific can speed the development of an El Niño or La Niña but usually do not in themselves lead to the onset of a warm or cold ENSO event.

The westerly surface winds associated with active MJO convection are stronger during advancement toward El Niño and the easterly surface winds associated with the suppressed convective phase are stronger during advancement toward La Nina.

But it is not the MJO that creates El Niño and La Niña, there is only a correlation between the ENSO and the the status of the Niñas!?

Read more about how NOAA follows the MJO activity to help them in the forecasting

Why is it more windy during winter?

The difference in air pressure between the Equator and North Pole is at its highest during midwinter. Then the air over the North Pole is at its coldest and heaviest, while it is still summer warm over the Equator. When the air in the north is at the coldest and heaviest, the kinetic energy towards the high pressure in the south is the greatest and we get stronger winds than during our summer half year when the differences in temperature are smaller.

Wind occurs because of pressure differences in the air. These pressure differences are created by air temperature differences. We get temperature differences in the atmosphere because the earth is spherical and therefore the solar radiation has different approach to the Earth's surface. In the northern hemisphere, the angle between the sun and the earth's surface reduces the further north one travels. Therefore, it is warmer at the equator and colder at the poles.

In the atmosphere there is high pressure and low pressure created by the difference in temperature of the air masses in different areas. When air masses move from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure winds occurs. The greater the pressure difference is the harder it blows.

Solar heating is unevenly distributed over the earth and the wind is trying to smooth out these differences in temperature. Therefore, the wind blows more in the fall and winter in our part of the world, when very cold air has formed at the North Pole, while air masses in the south are still summer warm.

There are different types of high pressure. Stationary high pressures are warm and created over large sea areas while the seasonal high pressures are cold and occur during winter over the northern continents. Variable high-pressures occur in connection with the migratory lows. It is the seasonal high pressure that creates cold winds from north to south.

Madden-Julian Oscillation and cyclical changes in wind direction

In the early 1970s, the American meteorologists Roland Madden and Paul Julian discovered a wide area with enhanced thunderstorms and rains, which, are constantly on the move eastward around the equator and also creates changes in wind, air pressure and temperature.

In other words: There's a weather system travelling around the Earth on and on and on.

The Madden-Julian Oscillation moves, eastward at a speed of 5-10 m / s. It takes 30-60 days for it to complete one lap and the phenomena is most noticeable in the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific.

After the explosion of the volcanic island of Krakatoa in the Indonesian archipelago in 1883 one could observe how the dust pushed westward around the equator at 30-50 km altitude. 25 years later the Polish-German meteorologist Arthur Berson observed, when he was flying in his balloon in East Africa, that it began to push eastward when they reached 15 km altitude.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Berson

The fact that these two wind systems were really the same was discovered first in 1957-58 during the British atomic bomb experiments on Christmas Island, where extensive wind measurements were made.

Thus, it was discovered that the winds around the equator in a layer between 15 to 50 km alternates between easterly and westerly direction with an approximal periodicity of 26 months. Why the wind switch direction in this way and in addition why every twenty-sixth month, no one has really been able to explain yet!!! Anyway, the phenomena is called Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO)

Weather prediction helped by Madden Julian Oscillation

In the tropics, weather is not as predictable as in mid-latitudes. That is because in mid-latitudes the weather variables (clouds, precipitation, wind, temperature, and pressure) are largely governed by the upper-tropospheric so called Rossby waves, which interact with surface weather. In the tropics there is no such dominant instability or wave motion, and therefore the weather is less predictable for the 1-10 day period. Until recently it was believed that tropical weather variations on time scales less than a year were essentially random.

In 1971 Roland Madden and Paul Julian stumbled upon a 40-50 day oscillation when analysing zonal wind anomalies in the tropical Pacific. They used ten years of pressure records at Canton and upper level winds at Singapore. The oscillation of surface and upper-level winds was remarkably clear in Singapore. Until the early 1980′s little attention was paid to this oscillation, which became known as the Madden and Julian Oscillation (MJO), and some scientists questioned its global significance. Since the 1982-83 El Niño event, low-frequency variations in the tropics, both on intra-annual (less than a year) and inter-annual (more than a year) timescales, have received much more attention, and the number of MJO-related publications have grown rapidly.

The Humboldt Current binds CO2 and creates life!

The Humboldt Current carries cold water with low salinity from the South Pacific towards the equator. It makes the photosynthesis in the water to flourish. More than 300 grams of carbon, per square meter and year, is converted into organic material. This area is the most productive ecosystems in the world.

It also brings back nutrients, that has been released when degrading organic tissue from dead algea, fich etc, from the ocean floor to the surface.

http://www.theglobaleducationproject.org/earth/image.php?image=f-fisheries-map-lg.gif&title=global aquaculture

The Humboldt Current thus contributes to the big fishing industry in the area. Just under a fifth of the World’s fish catch has its origin in the area affected by the Humboldt Current. These are species of fish such as sardines and anchovies.

A rough estimate says tat the water that covers the Humboldt Current corresponds to the size of Australia. These waters would than bind the same amount of CO2 corresponding to what half of all the cars on Earth emit per year!

When the current functions normally one can in a sustainable way fish about 14 million tonnes of fish per year. The (unsustainable) annual fish catch in the World is at about 130 million tonnes.

Years with El Niño, when the Humboldt Current does not reach sea level and the ecosystem collapses, the binding of CO2 will decrease to such levels that the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere is noticeable.

Could it be that now that we have two El Nina in a row, we will be able to notice a reduction of CO2 in the atmosphere? And life would grow strong in the east Pacific Ocean??That would be really exciting!

Why do not the coniferous trees fell their needles in the autumn?

Because a needle is completely different than a leaf. It has thick walls, is better to keep the fluid level in the cells etc. If they loose fluid level/-pressure, the do not collapse because they are stiff and can therefor handle a dry season better than a hardwood.

Coniferous trees drop an entire group of needles, with the same age, at a certain time during the year. Scandinavian Spruce for example, let their cohort in late winter. I remember that especially well as my first ski race took place in late March in northern Sweden. My dad had waxed my skis with silver paste wax. It looked very nice under the skis before I started "skiing" around among the needles. The skis did not slide an inch, but I had to walk around the one mile long track. It took years before I appreciated skiing again.

But how do the needled prevent themselves from not freezing and burst? Because they reduce the water volume to a certain point and increases the concentration of both sugar and minerals to get a glycolic effect, and thus lower the freezing point of water

Is the Green House Effect creating more frequent El Niños or not?

Once again: The sun is warming up the Earth, the Earth is warming up the atmosphere.

Climate research mean that the increasing concentration of CO2 prevents the heat radiation from leaving Earth which results in an increased temperature in the atmosphere.

The Greenhouse effect provides a warmer atmosphere. The warmer atmosphere, air heated by the Earth, would not rise as fast then it would through an atmosphere with normal temperature? This in turn could make the Walker circulation weaker and thus the Trade winds. The hot water that normally runs westwards would have easier to run back east. The risk of more frequent El Niños would be clear!?

Is it instead that the sun heats up the land and water more then normal? The water is heated by the sun and the “mountain of warm water in the west would be too big and physically start to move eastwards? This could perhaps also disturb the Walker circulation to the east. Then the creation of more frequent El Niños, is more about the sun’s ability to increase the water temperature and physical phenomena creating the El Niño rather than a warmer atmosphere?

Nevertheless, the increased amount of CO2 in our atmosphere is only one very critical effect of human activity. All the other effects humans have on fresh water, deforestation, air pollution in general are all very critical and needs to be addressed. The focus on Global warming helps making people aware of all these questions, and that is maybe the most important when we discuss CO2?

Does the Walker circulation create the Trade winds or vice versa?

At the end of the 1960s the Norwegian-American meteorologist Jacob(Jack) Bjerknes was the first to  link variations in the tropical Pacific Ocean with large-scale motions in the tropical atmosphere and the appearance of El Niño.

Note that we are talking about the atmosphere above the prevailing weather (if one may say so). These movements are one of the strongest driving forces behind the Trade Winds.

During a normal year with warm water over the Indonesian archipelago and the colder waters outside South America, a gigantic sea breeze-like circulation(Walker cisrculation) with ascending air (low pressure), prevails over the western Pacific equatorial parts, and the opposite, falling air in the east (high pressure).

When the hot water during an El Niño episode spreads eastward, also the Walker Circulation moves eastward. This in turn affects the circulation over Africa and South America and thus most of the tropics.

What the scientists appear not to agree upon is whether it is the water masses fleeing eastward which makes the Walker circulation to move, or vice versa. This may well be a running point when reasoning about climate change and El Niño.

Sothern Oscillation found by Hildebrandsson, Walker and Bjerknes?

The effect on the winds sea currents by the Earth's rotation, the Coriolis effect, is weak near the equator where the dominant movement is rising heated air; convection. It can therefore be led to believe that the tropical circulation is fairly straightforward, as an unstable Swedish summer day, but with larger and heavier showers. But no, the tropical atmosphere is full of strange phenomena, which often gets stranger the closer to the equator we come.

Being in the middle of your 50-years crisis? The meteorologists Hugo Hildebrandson (1838 - 1925), Gilbert Walker (1868-1958) and Jack Bjerknes (1898-1974) all made epoch-making discoveries when they were well over 50.

In the late 1890s Hildebrandsson discovered strange, slow and large-scale atmospheric pressure variations, particularly in the Pacific Ocean. Months with high air pressure over Indonesia / Australia were found to be associated with low pressure over South America and vice versa. Walker followed the path of Hildebrandsson and mapped in the mid 1920s in more detail this phenomena, which he called, the Southern Oscillation.

In 1969, Jacob Bjerknes helped toward an understanding of El Niño Southern Oscillation, by suggesting that an anomalously warm spot in the eastern Pacific can weaken the east-west temperature difference, disrupting trade winds, which push warm water to the west. The result is increasingly warm water toward the east

What creates El Niño and La Niña?

What are the reasons behind the fact that the currents in the Pacific ocean are oscillating/changing at irregular intervals? Is it the changes in the strength of the dominant/most common air currents, water currents or has the Earth's rotation a big impact?

Some climate scientists have linked the past twenty years, more frequent and stronger El Niños with the air current changes due to global warming of the atmosphere. With a warmer atmosphere the relative power/speed of the rising hot air from the earth/oceans becomes weaker. Winds would then be weaker and reduce the drive of the water flow westwards

If it is an imbalance in the water system, which leads to El Niño, it is more difficult to find a connection to the global warming of the atmosphere. It is the sun that warms the ocean surface and if the warming shifts/oscillates, it would rather be due to changes in solar radiation intensity? El Niño would then be created because the amount of warm water in the west is too big, "the water mountain will be too high" and would begin to drift eastward physically.

Is it the rotation of the earth that creates the changes in ocean currents the picture becomes yet another. It is the rotation that together with the trade winds keep the hill of warm surface water to prevent it from sliding to the east. The so-called Coriolis power is an effect of Earth's rotation, and is according to researchers the power that prevents the giant sea mountain, created by the trade winds, to move eastwards. The difference of the height on the “warm water mountain” is as much as 45 cm, compared to normal sea level, but the volume is huge.

La Niña and El Niño

Is it the changes in the air or water currents that create the El Niño? Or is it perhaps the earth rotation? The question seams to be impossible to answer.

Trade winds create a slight uphill of warm surface waters to the west. With 4-8 years cycles, the trade winds get weaker and the slope slides back eastwards.

El Niño occurs at irregular intervals between 4-8 years. Opposite, La Niña, which is actually a strengthening of the normal state occurs in between. This happens when westerly trade winds are stronger and drives warm surface water westward.

With El Niño, more warm water then normal reaches the west coast of South America, This prevents the cold Humbolt current from reaching the surface along the coast which changes the whole ecosystem. Fishing is poor, coral reefs could die. On land, the normal condition is a dominant high-pressure with low rainfall as a result. During El Niño low pressures become more frequent and Chile and Peru will be hit by torrential rain(downfall). On the other hand, Indonesia and Australia's eastern parts get severe drought.

 La Niña affects the climate in the opposite way. The Humbolt current will function normally, it will be a very stable high pressure over Chile and Peru as well as strong low pressure in Indonesia and eastern Australia.

The big winds and water currents in the Pacific Ocean

First of all I, these huge wind and water systems are not stable. There exists a standard pattern, but with almost continuous deviations. But you have to start from a template and then possibly describe the differences as you go.

The Earth's rotation creates the dominant / most common wind direction in the tropics from east to west and leads the tropical ocean currents westward. In the Pacific we find North and South Equatorial Current leading surface waters westward. However, approximately 5-10 degrees north of the equator in a belt that is relatively calm, the Equatorial maelstrom travels east in a narrow band. The current extends over the entire ocean from the Philippines to Colombia.

The explanation for this phenomenon is to say the least extraordinary. When the easterly trade winds drive the warm surface waters westward, a sort of flat slope of warm water is formed which is highest in the west. The trade winds are holding back this slope so that water can not slide back "downhill". But there is a narrow gap in the prevailing east wind, where the winds are weak and changeable, and there can the water freely flow downhill to the east.

The basic forces in the Pacific Ocean

Under normal conditions, the relatively strong trade winds blow from east to west along the equator in the Pacific Ocean. The bulk of the warm surface water run in this way westwards from South America's coasts against Australia and Indonesia.

As warm surface water drives towards the west, it creates space for the cold water from the Humbolt current to flow up along the main Chilean and Peruvian coasts. This cold water is very nutritious and it creates the conditions for a frenetic biological activity. Both through photosynthesis, which creates a lot of plankton, necessary for higher life forms. There are figures indicating that approximately 20% of the world's catches of fish comes from these waters.

Then a lot of interesting things take place in the water and air and at irregular intervals arises El Niño and La Niña and many other fascinating phenomena

The Pacific Ocean, a climate factory

All three oceans, Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean do all impact on the climate regionally, but I wonder if there are any other ocean than the Pacific which is shown to also have a global impact on our climate!?

In every newspaper with any self esteem, we read in the days of). The former has in all cases I have known for a long time, but La Niña is for me a new acquaintance.

I intend to devote the next posts to write a little about water and air flows mainly in the Pacific Ocean. Because it fascinated me so much to dig into those issues and I hope it will interest others as well. A lot is perhaps remnants for most, but I write about it anyway!

To begin with, this primarily concerns the area around the equator and southwards. We will familiarize ourselves with the concepts of the two children El Niño (man child) and La Niña (girl), the Humbolt current, Equatorial Currents, Walker Circulation, Madden-Julian Oscillation, etc., etc..

Do sharks feed on fossil fuels?

Revolutionary new research shows that sharks and rays lay their eggs in warm deep see Methane seeps where volcanic activity heats the water and creates a full-fledged food chain.

It is nothing new in itself that life thrives around deep-sea volcanoes, far away from sunlight and photosynthesis.

An eco system of its own is created where bacteria nourishes on methane and sulphur instead of oxygen and sunlight. Clams and worms feed on bacteria and the question is whether the juvenile sharks and rocks make it too?

For us humans, this is big news. That there would be animals high up the food chain that partly feed in a system that is not driven by photosynthesis. Strange.

For sharks and rays, this is however no news. Palaeontologists have found fossils from tapeworms that lived in similar underwater volcanoes and have also found the fossil shark eggs there too. At least 200 million years old.

As a human being, you may well feel a bit paltry facing these numbers

It certainly is amazing!?

Water is a marvellous thing

Water is, as you know the prerequisite for life on Earth. Or rather, the Earth's life forms have arisen mainly due to the unique characteristics of water. On other planets with different conditions, there may of course exist completely different forms of life. Who knows?

Water is not like many of our other elements. The solid state of water has a greater volume and lower density than its liquid form. The density is highest in the liquid state at +4 degrees Celsius.

This strange fact that the density is highest in the liquid state makes the ice float on the water, and the water around the polar areas does not bottom freeze. Along the bottom, the water is +4 degrees Celsius and the biological activity does not stop. This means that a big range of aquatic animals can find some food during the winter, which would have been impossible if the ground was covered with ice

Why do the leaves fall off in the autumn? Part III

For all leaf-bearing trees and bushes, it is therefore better to let these cells shrivel up and put energy on creating new leaf rudiments and empty as much water as possible to prevent frostbite and cell burst. In areas on earth where there is no risk of frost, the leaf-bearing plants are green year round. They even manage a few nights of frost and a total loss of foliage, but would the cold period hold for longer cells would burst and kill the plant

Why do the leaves fall off in the autumn? Part II

Despite all the rain- and snowfall, the winter is a relatively dry season with cold dry air. It actually works to dry laundry outdoors cold, clear winter days. The water freezes in the garment and then evaporates without passing through the liquid state. We have, in other words, a fairly high vapor pressure on the garment surface and the same would apply to the leaves. The tree would have a hard time trying to retain moisture and at the same time not able to take up new liquid (the ground's frozen) with dehydration as a result.

Who do the leaves fall off in the autumn? Part I

OK it is summer on the norhern hemisphere and one should maybe not think so much about autumn and winter, but newertheless her comes some thoughts:

With water-filled leaves left on the tree, would first of all the cells burst as the water expands when it freezes. The trees could protect themselves by producing/store lots of sugar in the leaves during the early fall to get a high sugar content in the cells.

This would work like glycol in the coolant/antifreeze and provide some protection. To produce this sugar is obviously more dangerous and energy consuming than to simply turn off all cell functions in the leaves and let them fall off.

Aldus Manutius first to print Dante's Divine Comedy

It is rather strange that when you start digging into something, there are endless things to learn. I first wrote about Aldus Manutius because I thought it was a bit hilarious that there was a specific person who invented the semicolon, today appearing as smileys in so many SMS-messages. As I dig further, it turns out that this man must have been one of his times greatest entrepreneurs and visionaries.

Aldus Manutius who was active in Vendig in the late 1400s and ran one of those days largest printing works. Not only has he printed texts from his own era, but he converted many ancient handwritten parchment works into printed books.

Among other things, it was Manutius who first printed Dante's Divine Comedy and a number of works by Aristotle, Aristophanes, Euripides and Plato. I wonder if he had any idea of the long lasting greatness of these works? And that they, to some extent still influence a lot of art and literature 500 years later?

Aldus Manutius inventor of fonts like Garamond

Another interesting detail about the book printer Aldus Manutius, is that he also developed a host of fonts that is today widely used. The font family is called Medievelatikva or Garald. The Font family includes Garamond and Palatino as you probably recognize.

Useless knowledge perhaps, but I think it's classy that the fonts were created 500 years ago and I wonder if they knew which impact their work would have on the future.

Aldus Manutius invented the semicolon

Some inventions have transformed the history of the world and have become widely publicized. Some inventions have also had great influence, but the inventor has remained relatively unknown.

 

One of these inventors is Aldus Manutius, who lived between 1450 and 1515. Only 44 years old he invented the semicolon character (;). One can imagine how the mood was in his Venetian printing works when they realized that they had created something new, something big, something historic (I am ironic).

What they did not count on was the fact that not one single, normally gifted person, would use the sign during its first 510 years, but the suddenly used thousands of times an hour around the globe;-)

 

Semicolon was originally meant to be used when you think that a point is a too strong separation sign and a comma causes two sentences in a row. It is used between sentences - typically main clauses - which are closely related to each other. A semicolon is usually followed by small letters and can also be used for enumerations in order to separate groups from each other

 

Decrease your own use of non environmental friendly plastics

On an  individual level, we can all help to reduce the amount of plastic that ends up on the wrong place. The Plastic Pollution Coalition challenges us to find out the "plastic footprint" we hand down every week.

It is easy to reduce this footprint. Say no to styrofoam, disposable plastic bags, packaging, - straws, razor blades, and take-away packagings. Carry home the groceries in a reusable bag. Buy large packages, and select products with minimal or recycled packaging. Reuse glass and stainless steel containers. Buy less plastic, and instead choose sustainable products that you maintain

What to do with all the plastics?

In total eight percent of the world's oil production are used in manufacturing plastics, and only five percent of the plastics are recycled. Most of it is buried as land filling, with the result that the plastics are, for decades, leaking toxic chemicals into the groundwater. Less than 0.2 percent of today's plastics are biodegradable and there are few facilities that compost "bioplastics" made from corn or other cereals.

Huge quantities are dumped into the sea. This and other effects are described in detail in the Royal Society's report "Plastics, environment and human health". However, there are rather simple solutions to come around parts of the problems. Australia, Ireland, Italy, Taiwan and South Africa are leading an international movement to prevent or ban plastic bags. Since 2002, Ireland imposed a 15-cents 'plastic tax', the use of plastic bags dropped by 90 percent and tax revenues have funded recycling programs. The leader of the UN Environment Programme has called for a global ban on thin plastic bags.

Environmental friendly plastics?

This year, approximately 300 million tons of plastic will be produced in the world. This is the equivalent weight of 800 Empire State Buildings! Since the millennium, almost as much plastics have been produced as during the second half of the 1900’s.

One third of all plastics are used in packaging which are opened, empted and thrown. Bags and bottles will soon be all over the place. Worldwide, more than one billion plastic bags are distributed to consumers every day. Most of them are burned, but many are just thrown away. Travelling the highways in Saudi Arabia for example, you will find both sides of the road covered with plastic items.

In the U.S., 3.5 billion kilograms of packaging are thrown in the garbage cans each year, at a cost of four billion dollars for dealers and customers. This equals the amount of petroleum needed to energize one million cars. Neither is good, because they emit CO2 to the atmosphere or, as plastic items, degrade very slowly. So why not ban plastic bags.

Did anybody say environmental friendly plastics?

Along the South Pacific shores, you do not walk around in nice sand and clam shells not even in seaweed, dead fish or oil lumps? No, you wander about among lots of plastic bottles, and other plastic material that have been washed up on the shore.
The oceans are flooded with plastic debris. 50 000 pieces of plastic pieces on every square mile of the ocean! The marine food chain consume partially degraded but almost indestructible plastics. Every year, approximately 100 000 whales, dolphins and other marine mammals as well as one million birds die from the plastic that they eat. This according to the United Nations Environment Programme, UNEP

Are trees world's lungs? In a way!

Very simplified, but rather spot on:

A tree takes up CO2 from the air, minerals and water from the ground. With the help of solar energy the tree converts this into sugar and oxygen as long as the sun shines during the day.

Then in the tree uses this sugar plus water, minerals and oxygen for the cellular respiration and the construction of new cells just like any living organism at any time.

Thus the tree is generating oxygen during sun shine and but consumes a portion of it for its own metabolism. Overall more oxygen is generated than consumed, so when the tree reaches maturity, it has contributed to releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.

If it just dies and falls to the ground, it will decay and in the spirit of nature’s cycles, the small insects and micro organisms that feed on the dead tree will consume the small excess of oxygen that the tree produced during its life.

So in a perfect natural eco system, there is no extra oxygen produced. The amount of oxygen in the atmosphere is rather stableIt. But is very important that there are plants or other biomass that can convert the CO2 animals breathe out to the O2 so that the cycle works.

When CO2 increases, will all Oxygen be consumed?

The atmosphere contains of 21% oxygen and only 0.04% carbon dioxide (CO2). If we burn all fossil fuels, scientists have estimated that the amount of CO2 could rise to 0.1%. Which means that only a fraction of today's oxygen would be tied up in new CO2. Theoretically, the amount of oxygen would be reduced by almost 2% percentage to 19%.

In the sea there is about 0.001% oxygen so a large part of Earth's organisms have adapted to that level. Even with such a large organsim that Whale sharks get enough oxygen through their gills.

So the reduced amount of oxygen would not be a disaster as such, but many scientists believe that such a dramatic increase of the CO2 content in the athmosphere would.

Small and big big scale use of resorces

Would you simply say that everything that does not disturb the natural cycle is environmentally friendly?

It would mean that anyone using a natural rersourse, in small or big scale, in one way or another may not return it to the ecosystem, wiyhout restoring it?

A clear example of how small scale becomes large scale is the use of water closets. A toilet uses about 6 liters of fresh water to flush out the contents.

In Mexico, at least 30 percent of all water drains are released directly into the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. There are about 110 million people in Mexico who flushes out a total of 6 liters of fresh water after each visit three times a day. 18 liters per 100 million people will be 1.8 billion liter of water a day where at least 30%, ie about 600 million liters, of sewage goes straight out into the sea. Every day! And water is a scarce commodity?

Imbalance is the word! Why is the question

For the second year in a row, Sweden has got record levels of snow and temperatures lower than usual. To try to be a little bit cynical, I think the climate conference in Copenhagen last year was a total success. Since the conference, it has been freezing cold during the winter in most of Europe. This is of course a local phenomenon in Europe while other parts on the northern hemisphere suffer from much warmer climate than usual.

After years of drought, the more rain than normal is pouring down in Australia. Areas around the Globe that in some ways normally are flooded within certain periods are hit in a much larger scale. Storms and hurricanes raging, the polar winds blow down from the poles and the whimsical ocean currents in the Pacific Ocean giving rise to the climate phenomenon such as El Niño and La Niña. But what is normal and what is due to the impact human activity has on the climate?

I think it is a combination of global warming and natural cycles. The problem is that the topic is very complicated and it seams like the arguments are either pro or con. There are few articles admitting that it could be several causes to the climate change the last 20-30 years, both natural and as an effect by human impact..

Either way, the fight against climate change for me is mainly about getting people to decrease the general pollution of our planet. This of course includes the suppression of carbon emissions, but the main issue is to fight the whole spectrum of the over-exploitation of natural resources

Thinktank: Possible to reverse the Green House effect by planting trees?

Thinktank: Possible to reverse the Green House effect by planting trees?

Possible to reverse the Green House effect by planting trees?

I claim that we could assimilate all the CO2 emitted by all cars in the world by investing 2 percent of the world's common military budget.

All countries in the world engaged in active forest management contributes to binding CO2, but the big potential lies in reforest areas which previously were forest, but have been degenerated.

The world's common military budget is said to be 1 200 billion Euros. If we were to cut two percent of this, we have 24 billion to buy and plant seedlings for. We make a rough estimate that it costs 1 € to bring down a plant in the soil wherever it is possible to cultivate forest. So we have the money to plant 24 billion seedlings. And there are huge areas around the globe that can be reforested. If plant the same amount of new trees for the coming 80 years we would assimilate enormous amounts of CO2.

A fully grown trees of approximately 80 years, has converted around 4000-5000 kg of CO2 into wood. When the trees are small it converts small amounts so there will be a slightly slow start in our assimilation project. After only 10-15 years, we have converted the same amount of CO2 that the world all cars emit in a year. After 80 years, all these trees have tied all CO2 that all cars in the world have emitted during the same period. Given that the car's increase, but emissions per car decreases.

The example above shows that it is possible with a fraction of some given annual costs to tie much of the CO2 in the atmosphere. I am aware of the importance to reduce all kind of emissions, but there are relatively quick ways to convert parts of the CO2 now liberated into new biomass.

By for now

Where do coal, oil and gas come from?

Perhaps it is too simple to say that all the coal, oil and gas (fossil fuels) originates from the vast forests produced during the Carbon Time which extends the time between 359-299 million years ago.
There are a number of theories about how fossil fuels are actually created. The most widespread is that many of the plants, algae and plankton which were produced during this period did not decay again, but has given origin to the coal, oil and gas.

The main terrestrial plant varieties were not trees as we are used to seeing them but it was enormous horsetail plants, fern and club mosses. Much larger than the variations we see in our forests today.
Oil and gas is considered mainly to originate in algae and plankton when they die sunk to the seabed. There they have not broken down but formed huge warehouse sediments. These sediments are then under pressure and temeparatur converted into oil and natural gas.

The parallel to the today's oxygen-free sea-bottoms is easy to make, where the dead algae and plankton does not break down but creating thick mats of dead material.

So if the the theory is right, it is these hydrocarbons, the main components of fossil fuels, which we now released into the atmosphere again.

We are not creating something that has not been there before, just changing the rules for the current life forms on the planet.

Including us.

Can forestry prevent the Green House Effect?

I got an interesting question the other day: "-Forestry as it is run today, stores atmospheric carbon by transforming CO2 into trees that eventually become wood in buildings or paper. The trees convert carbon dioxide(CO2) through several steps into cellulose molecules. Why do we then see an increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?"

Millions of years ago tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide were tied in vast forests. The amount of trees must have been so high that all of them did degrade after they died. The cellulose was instead, over millions of years, transformed into COAL, OIL AND GAS. When we burn coal, oil and gas carbon dioxide is again released. So in a sense, we bring back the carbon dioxide that once existed in the atmosphere at a speed that might cause serious environmental disturbances.

A well functioning forest industry partially prevents this development, but is today too small to convert all the excessive CO2. More about this in the next blog.

Johan