PART THREE: THE STABILIZATION OF THE CLIMATE

Forest fires boost the greenhouse effect (through the release Carbon) before Photosynthesis moderates the greenhouse effect (through the extraction of atmospheric Carbon). On the other hand, the release of dust does not boost the greenhouse effect - it just boosts the Photosynthetic effect thereby countering the greenhouse effect. It is not known whether Forest fires’ contribution to the moderation of global warming through the release of aerosols is greater than the boost to global warming caused by the release of Carbon emissions. Forest fires have multiple impacts on the climate. Other impacts will be highlighted below.

The creation of charcoal permanently removes Carbon from planetary circulation because it cannot be absorbed by micro-organisms and returned to the atmosphere, "It might be that fires themselves are the regulators of oxygen. There is no shortage of lightning strikes for their ignition. If fires are the regulator it cannot be a simple relationship. Fires would lead to the burial of much more Carbon because charcoal is entirely resistant to biological degradation. Paradoxically fires lead to more oxygen in the long run. If this grim scenario is followed to a conclusion there would at first be a positive feedback on oxygen, but soon the Forests would be so devastated that Carbon production would fall to the point where oxygen was near or below its present level. A more subtle regulation involving fire would come from the effects of fire ecology on selection pressure."

Recent research suggests this role is far more important than has previously been assumed, "For years, everyone has assumed that plankton and other marine organisms play a key role in regulating the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. But they may have been given more credit than they deserve, according to a new study which suggests that half of the carbon found in ocean sediments may not have been removed from the atmosphere by marine life but in fact came from forests. David Verardo, a geologist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, was addressing this question by studying organic matter in sections of a core of sediment drilled from the bottom of the Atlantic. Amazingly, about half of all the carbon in the core turned out to be charcoal .. In some sections, charcoal accounted for as much as 90% of the carbon. His explanation is that high winds, generated by the large temperature gradients which huge ice sheets created, transported an unusual amount of debris and charcoal dust from fires far out to sea."

For the first few aeons of the Earth’s history the main decomposers/scavengers were micro-organisms but as Animals began to emerge they too began to play a role in Phytomass/biomass decomposition. When Trees emerged on Earth some 300 million years ago, they were so tough it would have taken a long time for the elements to decomposed them. It would take less time for micro-organisms to break them down. However, when larger forms of Wildlife appeared they were able to break up Trees, and make the nutrients available for the soil, much more quickly. According to lovelock, the appearance of large Plants and Animals in the proterozoic period enabled Phytomass/biomass to be broken down so rapidly that it led to the development of an oxygen atmosphere, "The proterozoic period .. is poorly understood. Scientists know that for the most part it was a world of micro-organisms like the Archean. Unicellular life was hardly vigorous enough to bury the larger quantities of Carbon needed to sustain a high level of oxygen by counteracting its rapid removal by reaction with the rocks. I think that oxygen did not increase much above 1% until the evolution of large plants and animals."

Lovelock believes marine Algae are an important influence on the Earth’s climate. He concludes that the white Daisies in his Daisyworld computer model represent, in the real world, oceanic Algal blooms, "We can speculate that the blankets of white marine stratus clouds reflecting sunlight back to space above the Algal blooms of the ocean, are the white Daisies, and the dark conifer Forests of the Northern temperate regions are the black Daisies."

The chemicals created by the reactions between acids and rocks, leech through the soil into waterways and eventually drain into the seas, "Calcium and bicarbonate (HCO3) are released and carried, dissolved in the water, eventually to the sea." The Carbon is taken up by marine Algae, "Calcium and bicarbonate (HCO3) are released and carried, dissolved in the water, eventually to the sea. Once in the sea, living organisms convert the calcium and bicarbonate into insoluble calcium carbonate (CaCO3) from which they make their shells."; "Some algae (the diatoms) take the silicic acid to make their skeletons; and other algae (the coccolithophores) take their calcium bicarbonate to make skeletons of calcium carbonate."

After marine micro-organisms have died their shells fall to the ocean floor. Over millions of years, huge quantities of shells accumulate on the ocean floor. They are gradually compressed, under their own weight and the water above them, into limestone, "The fall of tiny shells from the dead algae (coccolithophores) is responsible for calcium carbonate and silica deposition in the sediments of the ocean floor..."; "The concentration of CO2 in the mixed layer of the ocean, the top 250 feet, is as much as the entire atmosphere itself. In this region of the ocean, micro-organisms use the carbon dioxide in the form of bicarbonate to make their skeletons and shells. When the animal dies, its hard shell or skeleton settles on the bottom of the ocean where it contributes to the formation of carbonate rock. If the calcium carbonate falls to greater depths, it is dissolved in the cold deep waters of the abyssal. The abyssal region, by virtue of its great volume, holds the vast majority of free carbon dioxide."

According to lovelock, rock weathering is the most important means of removing Carbon from the atmosphere, "The abundance of CO2 in the air depends on the balance between the amount being injected from beneath the crust through volcanoes and the amount lost from the air by chemical reaction at the Earth’s surface."; "Calcium silicate rock .. is the only true sink for carbon dioxide."

Lovelock believes that life accelerates rock weathering, "When plants die, their roots decay into the soil, and the organic carbon reacts with the rocks in a process known as weathering. (Weathering also occurs while the Plants are alive, since some of the Carbon dioxide they absorb is not used but is conducted and deposited deep into the soil, initiating the same chain of chemical reactions). In a process catalyzed and hastened by bacteria, the carbon and the oxygen of the plant materials react with the calcium silicate, the substance of rock particles, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere and forming calcium carbonate (limestone) and gelatinous silicic acid. Unlike their rock-solid silicate predecessors, limestone and silicic acid dissolve readily into the groundwater and are transported to local streams and rivers, which empty into the sea. Marine organisms filter the limestone from the water to form their shells, essentially reconstituting the land stones for use as their shelter."; "If the soil of a well-vegetated region almost anywhere on Earth is examined, the Carbon dioxide content is between 10 and 40 times higher than the atmosphere. What is happening is that living organisms act like a giant pump. They continuously remove Carbon dioxide from the air and conduct it deep into the soil where it can react with rock particles and be removed. Consider a Tree. In its lifetime it deposits tons of Carbon gathered from the air into its roots, some carbon dioxide escapes by root respiration during its lifetime, and when the Tree dies the Carbon of the roots is oxidized by consumers, releasing Carbon dioxide deep in the soil. In one way or another living organisms on the land are engaged in the business of pumping Carbon dioxide from the air into the ground. There it comes into contact with, and reacts with, the calcium silicate of the rocks to form calcium carbonate and silicic acid. Were life not present, the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere would have to reach the calcium silicate of the rocks by slow inorganic processes like diffusion." "Chemical weathering of calcium and magnesium silicates in rocks is a much bigger Carbon sink, and one that absorbs Carbon at 4 times the rate it is buried as reduced organic Carbon. Chemical weathering acts as a sink for Carbon, locking it up in limestone." Lovelock has argued, "All life forms, from micro-organisms to trees, from amoebae to elephants, in various ways increase the rate of rock weathering, which is the sink for the greenhouse gas, CO2."

Forests play a major role in rock weathering, "Most geochemists agree that Forests promote the chemical weathering of the crust, a process that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and thus tends to reduce the greenhouse effect and global temperature. Organisms that influence the global environment, like .. trees, which promote weathering, all perform their vital functions for other reasons. .. trees create acidic soils to acquire mineral nutrients. The dms climate feedback appears to be positive today so climatic stability probably relies on stabilizing factors such as the tree-weathering feedback."; "Solid support for increased weathering by vegetation is coming from experiments .. We usually think of trees as defined by trunks, branches, and leaves. But as a recent biochemical guild (assemblage) of gaia, it may be tree roots that are most significant in altering the cycle of elements. In the largest taxonomy of the guilds, trees are photosynthesizers, big siblings to algae and cyanobacteria. But they occupy a unique slot as rooted photosynthesizers. Rooted photosynthesizers have worked distinctive effects on the cycles of carbon and other elements."

Lovelock speculates that because Plants absorb, and release, roughly the same amounts of Carbon, the Carbon added to the atmosphere by volcanoes might be expected to increase the greenhouse effect. The reason it doesn’t, he believes, is because volcanic emissions are balanced by rock weathering. Geological rock weathering would not be fast enough to extract the Carbon dumped into the atmosphere through volcanic eruptions. Rock weathering needs micro-organisms to speed up the process, "Without the organisms - with only the slow diffusion of carbonated rainwater through the rocks - carbon dioxide would build up to a far greater concentration, he argues, perhaps 100 times what it actually is, before reaching equilibrium. Such a concentration of carbon dioxide would have a massive greenhouse effect: Earth would be uninhabitable."

Rock weathering moderates global warming because the warmer the Earth, the greater the increase in chemical weathering, the greater the deposition of Carbon, the bigger the decrease in the greenhouse effect, "Chemical weathering acts as a sink for Carbon, locking it up in limestone. And the warmer the Earth is, the faster the weathering proceeds and the more CO2 is taken from the atmosphere. Chemical weathering, transforming calcium silicates to carbonates, stabilizes the climate, removing more CO2 when the climate is warmer and less when it is cooler." Rock weathering is a major geophysiological process stabilizing the climate.

Rock weathering is such a powerful factor it not merely moderates global warming it can also produce global cooling, "The rise of the angiosperms may have also contributed to global cooling during the last 100 million years. Volk suggested that the spread of angiosperm-deciduous ecosystems had caused a higher rate of global weathering, and thus increased fluxes of Ca and Mg ions from continental silicates contributed to the increasing importance of calcareous plankton. The plankton precipitation in turn depleted the atmospheric carbon dioxide."

Secondly, the ice sheets spreading across the amero-euro-asian continents bury both Forests and Peatbogs. Peatbogs no longer extract Carbon from the atmosphere thereby inducing global warming, "The advancing ice of the glacial period also destroys the bogs and the process therefore become self-limiting."; .. "peatlands could have been an important part of the biological mechanisms that many believe have helped plunge the Planet into and out of glaciation. Alterations in the extent of Peatbogs would change the concentration of Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by up to 20%. Global cooling would encourage the growth of Peatbogs, at the expense of Forests. Over thousands of years, the Peatbogs would extract Carbon from the atmosphere and store it, so reducing the natural greenhouse effect and driving temperatures still lower. Eventually ice sheets would cover the bogs, perhaps helping to trigger the end of the glaciation."

Whilst volcanic eruptions have an influence on the climate they do not play a climate stabilization role i.e. increasing/decreasing global temperatures have no effect on the frequency of volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes erupt for their own geophysical reasons unrelated to the climate - although some commentators have speculated about a relationship, "A team of US researchers studying the history of volcanic eruptions in the northern hemisphere has found that rapid changes in the climate - both cooling and warming - may be linked with an increase in the rate of volcanic eruptions."; "Nearly 60% of active volcanoes form islands or occupy coastal sites, and nearly all of the rest lie within 250 kilometres of a coastline. So changing sea levels could directly affect the stresses inside nearly all volcanoes, helping to expel the magma explosively. .. if human activity were to cause the catastrophic melting of the ice caps, this may well be followed or accompanied by a burst of elevated explosive volcanic activity. Nature’s way of cooling the planet may serve as an explosive warning about the consequences if we continue to tinker with the enormously complicated global system that is the Earth."

A part of the reason why the multiplicity of factors influencing the Earth’s climate seems so chaotic is scientists’ ignorance about the climate. They have not yet determined all the factors playing a role in the climate. They haven’t determined the significance of their roles in the Earth’s climate. They cannot say what the hierarchy of their significance is, "The relative influence of life’s stabilizing and destabilizing feedbacks remains uncertain; what is clear is that climate and natural ecosystems are tightly coupled, and the stability of that coupled system is an important ecosystem service." The lack of scientific evidence about the Earth's climate is considerable.

The Earth seems to have as many factors destabilizing the climate as stabilizing it. Scientists’ ignorance makes it difficult to say whether the Earth’s climate stabilizing factors are more powerful than the destabilizing factors so, once again, it only becomes obvious that the stabilizing factors are more powerful when the facts of the Earth’s history are taken into account. The existence of geophysiological processes that destabilize the climate suggests that the Earth’s climate regulation ‘system’ is not a machine in which all the elements fit together and work co-operatively like a watch. Gaia is not a gourmet recipe with complementary ingredients designed to produce a precise taste experience. It is more of a hotch potch stew which is rough on the palate but offers substantial nourishment.

The above analysis of the Earth’s two destabilization tendencies suggests the Earth is much more likely to burn up like venus than it is to freeze like mars. There seem to be far more factors pushing the Earth in the direction of global burning than toward global freezing. This poses a considerable danger because only global burning has the capability of destroying the biosphere. It is unlikely that global freezing could become severe enough to destroy all life on Earth and the biosphere itself. Life seems safer during ice ages than it is in periods of global burning. In terms of Biodiversity, ice ages may cause a considerable reduction in the numbers of species, especially those on land, whilst periods of global warming might create an incredible profusion of life but, in terms of tenure, life is much less insecure during glacial periods than when the Earth is hotting up. As the Earth warms up there is an increase in the risk of the climate slipping towards an extreme which could destroy the entire Biosphere. Whilst life in the oceans seems safe no matter how cold it gets, it is the first to disappear when global temperatures rise.

It is difficult determining whether the Earth’s climate stabilization system is just in terminal decline or has disappeared altogether. Since this system is composed of different elements then the question has to be answered about each of those elements. The Earth will lose its ability to regulate the climate:-

Climatologists’ artificial comparison not merely gives rise to dangerous political views, it ignores the basic facts about the Earth’s climate e.g. that there has never been a time when global warming hasn’t existed on Earth and that it is highly unlikely there ever will be such a time within the imaginable future. It overlooks the fundamental trends of the Earth’s climate e.g. that over the last few aeons the sun has been getting hotter and that the Earth would have burnt up if Photosynthesis had not cooled the planet. Scientists’ artificial comparison makes it far more difficult to explain the nature of the climate’s current predicament and outline the policies needed - policies which are the exact opposite of those implied by this comparison.

It is imperative to compare the Earth’s current climate not with an artificial, unreal, abstraction but with the Earth’s climate history:

That life has been able to stop the sun’s increasing solar radiation from burning up the Earth is an extraordinary achievement. But then along comes a horde of insufferably arrogant, stupid, eco-nazis without the slightest interest in the planet they live on, without the slightest clue that they live on a living, breathing, planet, and without the slightest understanding of the battles that have been fought over the last three aeons to enable life to flourish on Earth. They are not merely stupid, self-obsessed, and clueless, they resent having to understand anything which might inhibit their greed from devastating the planet.