If you missed Part 1 of this series, you can check it out here: A Contribution to Earth Warming: The Human Factor (Part 1)
Chapter 4 – Forest Fires
Forest fires will burn fiercer when winds are stronger and hotter. Damage caused by forest fires or bush fires will become more destructive and the fires will harder to put out.
Reasons for Climate Change
Chapter 5 – Carbon Balance
The Earth and its elements operate in a closed system. For every human being added on this Earth, its Carbon atoms must come from a plant source or a fossil fuel source or from an animal source. Human beings on Earth gets their diet of Carbon atoms from animal or vegetable food ingested. For every human being added, more farm animals are added. These farm animals derive their Carbon from plants.
So for every human or animal addition to its population, there would be a corresponding reduction in plants – Carbon atom for Carbon atom.
So increasing the human population not only reduces the plant population to build up the human body, it also means increased deforestation for the increase in human habitat space and human carbon usage in furniture and plastics etc.
All the Carbon atoms on Earth is used in its Flora, its Fauna, its fossil fuels stocks, and the Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere and the Carbon Dioxide in its oceans. (Forget the small amounts like diamonds).
So the total Carbon (Ctotal) = Carbon in Flora (Cflora) + Carbon in Fauna (Cfauna) + Carbon in Fossil Fuels (Cfossil) + Carbon Dioxide (CO2).
An increase in any individual entity (e.g. flora) means a corresponding amount of Carbon from the other entities.
Increasing the human population means there would be less flora or less fossil fuels or less Carbon Dioxide.
Chapter 6 – The Carbon Dioxide Cycle becoming a Carbon Dioxide Spiral
The Carbon Dioxide cycle that we learnt in school is dated. The Carbon Dioxide cycle can only happen if there is plentiful Flora to absorb all the Carbon Dioxide produced by all the Fauna (metabolism) and burning fuels.
From the earlier chapter on Carbon Balance, Every increase in Fauna (includes the Human population), means a decrease in Flora, through the Carbon shift. Every time, the human population grows, there will be less and less Flora. Also there will be land taken up for building cities, towns, residences, roads etc. and this reduces the land available for Flora cultivation.
When life on Earth started, there are plenty of Flora and little Fauna. Today, the growth of Fauna, especially the human Fauna, grows in exponential magnitude. With Fauna growth and corresponding Flora shrinkage, a time will come when there is insufficient plant material to absorb
all the Carbon Dioxide produced by the Fauna. This is the critical point when the Carbon Dioxide which is not absorbed by plants, remain in the atmosphere. This will continue in an unending cycle and the Carbon Dioxide build up in the atmosphere increases (like in a vicious cycle). Or until there is a reverse Carbon shift from Fauna back to Flora.
Today, we are living in the age of a Carbon Dioxide spiral instead of a Carbon Dioxide cycle.
If we want to get rid of CO2 from our atmosphere, it is better to grow fast growing wooded trees and then cutting them down to bury or use them for wooden structures, not to burn.
Continue reading Part 3 of “A Contribution to Earth Warming: The Human Factor”
