Report: The World Will Run out of Breathable Air Unless Carbon Is Cut

[WhiteTara]

http://news.yahoo.com/report-world-run-breathable-air-unless-carbon-cut-210604512.html

As representatives from 195 nations gather in Paris to hammer out a global agreement to slash greenhouse gas emissions, a new study finds that the failure to do so could leave the world gasping for breath.

Marine plants such as phytoplankton are estimated to produce more than half the Earth’s atmospheric oxygen, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For the study, Sergei Petrovskii, an applied mathematics professor at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, calculated how unrestrained global warming could affect phytoplankton and thus the ocean’s ability to generate breathable air. He ran computer models that looked at what would happen to phytoplankton’s ability to photosynthesize at different temperatures.

If the world’s oceans warmed by 6 degrees Celsius—a realistic possibility if global emissions continue unabated—the tiny plants would halt oxygen production, according to the study, which was published Tuesday in the Bulletin of Mathematical Biology.

more at link

[flamingdem]

1. Well there you have it

This is how the party is going to end if steps aren't taken.

[WhiteTara]

5. this is the way the world ends

this is the way the world ends...not with a bang but a whimper. TS Elliot

[valerief]

2. You know what this means. The PTB will have as many 'breathers' slaughtered

as possible. The fewer breathers, the more oxygen for the PTB.

That's the RW solution.

[villager]

14. They appear to be already working on it. nt

[LiberalArkie]

3. Is that before we kill each other? Us rural people might have a slight advantage here

being surrounded by trees. But then it might get hot enough to kill most of them off. But at least Wall Street may go before us in the country. One can only hope.

[WhiteTara]

6. Pine borer beetles are killing off lots

and sudden death oak disease are getting a bunch more. Yep, we're on a death spiral.

[Brother Buzz]

12. Juxtaposition, if we eliminated fungi, those dead trees would not release CO2 into the atmosphere

The 60-million-year-long Carboniferous period—when the bulk of the world's coal deposits were laid down and atmospheric CO2 levels declined—ended roughly 300 million years ago when White Rot Fungi mysteriously appeared.

Just food for thought.

[MrScorpio]

4. The human race is headlong and hell bent to extinguish itself

After we're gone, hopefully dear old Planet Earth will make a swift recovery for more appreciative inhabitants.

[WhiteTara]

7. It may not be swift, but to be sure, the Earth will survive. nt

[One_Life_To_Give]

8. Except for a contradictory report

http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/environment/rising-co2-levels-causing-spike-in-phytoplankton-in-oceans/article/450979

For a long time, scientists have thought the number of plankton species in the world's oceans would decrease due to increased acidification. However, over the past four decades or so, their populations have increased, says a new study.

It would appear this calls into question the basis of the model used. Should the numbers of plankton actually increase rather than decrease as has been conventional thought.

[WhiteTara]

9. that's hopeful. nt

[pintobean]

10. That was the first thing I thought of.

[VMA131Marine]

13. These studies look at two different things

The first looks at the effects of increasing temperature on the ability of phytoplankton to remove CO2 and generate oxygen through photosynthesis. The second says that the numbers of certain phytoplankton increase with increasing CO2 levels. It's certainly possible for both things to be true and that the number of phytoplankton will increase right up to the point where the surface temperature increase is 6 degrees and then, if the study is correct, abruptly stop. As the article points out, this would be very bad because there would be no warning of the impending disaster. In fact, the rise in phytoplankton numbers would make it appear that things were improving when the opposite was, in fact, true.

On the bright side, I suspect we'll figure out how to genetically modify phytoplankton to withstand the higher temperatures before there's a problem.

[olddots]

11. this would be a really nice planet without the humans

We are the worst form of predators because we think we are superiors .

[SidDithers]

15. Guess I won't bother Christmas shopping...nt

Sid

[WhiteTara]

16. for next year anyway. nt

[Octafish]

17. That would be a problem for the 99.9-percent of the peasantry.

Appropriate measures will be taken by the few who can afford to take action against such contingencies.

DU 2005: A planet full of Hitlers

[Ghost Dog]

19. Yes. There will be artificially-controlled protected environments for the Chosen Few

and their servants with noble architecture, hanging gardens and perfumed air while the rest of us participate in the ecologically inevitable process of population self-regulation by dying in billions in the coming decade through entirely natural causes such as famine, disease, police-state activity and war.

See: no big deal, really.

[Octafish]

20. Frank Carlucci, BFEE Naval Arkietech

http://www.alternet.org/story/147058/the_really_creepy_people_behind_the_libertarian-inspired_billionaire_sea_castles

Why not, if submarines can get air from seawater...Rich people got rights, too.

[Ghost Dog]

21. Thanks Octa. "It's pretty clearly a suicide." Meanwhile,

plans to launch the Utopia are moving ahead on schedule.

[KamaAina]

18. Not a problem. We'll just outsource it to...

...oh, wait a minute...