Talk-Polywell.org

Simon Lewis, a fellow of the Royal Society, led the study that measured the girth of 70,000 trees across 10 African countries and compared them with similar records made four decades ago.

“On average, the trees were getting bigger faster,” Lewis said. He found that each hectare of African forest was trapping an extra 0.6 tons of CO2 a year compared with the 1960s.

If this is replicated across the world’s tropical rainforests they would be removing nearly 5 billion tons of CO2 a year from the atmosphere. Humans, however, generate about 50 billion tons of the gas each year.

CO2 rise was created by man.

While this makes sense at first, the jury is still out on this conclusion as well. The oceans contain 37,400 billion tons (GT) of suspended carbon, land biomass has 2000-3000 GT. The atpmosphere contains 720 billion tons of CO2 and humans contribute only 6 GT additional load on this balance. The oceans, land and atpmosphere exchange CO2 continuously so the additional load by humans is incredibly small. A small shift in the balance between oceans and air would cause a CO2 much more severe rise than anything we could produce. The reality is we just don’t know.

So what about shorter-lived non-woody plants and the effects of global warming? In response to this question, we note, first of all, that atmospheric CO2 enrichment often reduces the rate of plant residue decomposition (Henning et al. 1996; Van Ginkel et al., 1996; Hirschel et al. 1997; Torbert et al. 1998). In a field study of clover (Trifolium repens) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology near Zurich, for example, a 71% increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration increased the above-ground growth of the clover by 146%, while it increased the pumping of newly-fixed carbon into the soil of the CO2-enriched plots by approximately 50% (Nitschelm et al. 1997). In addition, root decomposition in the CO2-enriched plots was 24% less than in the ambient-treatment plots. Consequently, the authors concluded that "the occurrence at elevated CO2 of both greater plant material input, through higher yields, and reduced residue decomposition rates would be expected to impact soil carbon storage significantly." And in a similar study of the effects of a doubling of the air's CO2 concentration on three different grass species, Cotrufo and Gorissen (1997) concluded that "elevated CO2 could result in greater soil carbon stores due to increased carbon-input into soils ... thus counteracting increased decomposition under higher temperatures," and, we would add, thereby overpowering the negative influence of global warming.

http://www.co2science.org/articles/V2/N23/EDIT.php

Human emissions of CO2 are now estimated to be 26.4 Gt per year, up from 23.5 Gt in the 1990s, according to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report in February 2007 (pdf format). Disturbances to the land - through deforestation and agriculture, for instance - also contribute roughly 5.9 Gt per year.

About 40% of the extra CO2 entering the atmosphere due to human activity is being absorbed by natural carbon sinks, mostly by the oceans. The rest is boosting levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1 ... atter.html

The consumption of terrestrial vegetation by animals and by microbes (rotting, in other words) emits about 220 gigatonnes of CO2 every year, while respiration by vegetation emits another 220 Gt. These huge amounts are balanced by the 440 Gt of carbon dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere each year as land plants photosynthesise.

Similarly, parts of the oceans release about 330 Gt of CO2 per year, depending on temperature and rates of photosynthesis by phytoplankton, but other parts usually soak up just as much - and are now soaking up slightly more.

Carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere by a variety of sources, and over 95% percent of these emissions would occur even if human beings were not present on Earth. For example, the natural decay of organic material in forests and grasslands, such as dead trees, results in the release of about 220 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year. But these natural sources are nearly balanced by physical and biological processes, called natural sinks, which remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. For example, some carbon dioxide dissolves in sea water, and some is removed by plants as they grow.

As a result of this natural balance, carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere would have changed little if human activities had not added an amount every year. This addition, presently about 3% of annual natural emissions, is sufficient to exceed the balancing effect of sinks. As a result, carbon dioxide has gradually accumulated in the atmosphere, until at present, its concentration is 30% above pre- industrial levels.

http://www.gcrio.org/ipcc/qa/05.html

CO2 does not accumulate for centuries. The claim is that half of the CO2 humans put in the air goes into the oceans. That's 4.3 GTC/Y. In 1970, humans produced 4.3 GTC/Y. Before 1970, oceans should have been removing more than humans were adding. It's oceans warming and releasing more that has been causing the recent increase in CO2 in the atmosphere.

http://www.nov55.com/gbwm.html