Environment Pollution and CO2 But Trees are also CO2

(This article is just about my views which can be wrong also. I just felt that something is missing in our quest for clean life. I was thinking about the impact of global Recession of 1929 on environment and CO2. So I researched for very complex data and just tried to make something out of that. Reviews are Welcome)

I can still recall my initial interactions with the term “Environment” wherein I learnt that plants use CO2 for photosynthesis that makes the food we eat. In it plants use Light, CO2 and water to produce sugar or carbohydrates and produce oxygen as by product which is released into the environment. We eat the sugars of plants and breathe in the oxygen released by them. So CO2 was a “Gas of Life”. But now I see the transformation of this into a “Gas of Death” although it still does the same act. Whole world is worried about the rising levels of CO2 in the environment and its effect on increasing temperature.

CO2 was never in the list of dangerous gases. But is it really dangerous? Let’s delve into it. Nitrogen comprises 78% of atmospheric gases, Oxygen 21%. But our so called dangerous CO2 is just .04% of the atmosphere and only 3% of this .04% is manmade. I wonder whether this minuscule part of CO2 is capable of blocking the heat generated from earth from travelling far into the outer space and thus in the process raising the temperature.

The proponents of this theory of CO2 promoting global warming take shelter in the Vostok Ice Core data for 420000 years. An ice core contains ice formed over a range of years. Ice cores contain an abundance of information about climate. Inclusions in the snow of each year remain in the ice, such as dust, ash, pollen, bubbles of atmospheric gas and radioactive substances. This data of such a long time shows remarkable correlation between rise in temperature and increase in CO2 levels. This data is used for proving that high levels of co2 results in high temperature. But this is not an objective observation. As this data is for about half a million years, so what could have prompted the rise in the levels of co2 because humans started using hydrocarbon only about 200 years ago? Also after rising for a long period, co2 levels were falling…how and why?

But they missed the most pertinent observation. Rise in temperature always preceded the rise in CO2 levels. The temperature increases or decreases come first, and it is after that that the CO2 follows. Anyone can conclude that it is the rise in temperature that is causing the rise in co2 levels. How? Well the answer is that it came from the same place that the current increase is coming from: from the oceans. The amount of CO2 dissolved in the Earth’s oceans is at least 50 to 100 times greater than the amount in the atmosphere. As oceans warm for whatever reason, some of their dissolved CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere.

But what makes our oceans warmer? Our mighty Sun is responsible for this. I read long time back that there is enormous solar activity at sun at regular intervals of 11 years/40 years during which sun emits huge radiation. This radiation is the source of global warming and cooling cycles.

If greenhouse gases were the cause of global warming, how is it that from 1940 to 1975, when there was a dramatic increase in the production and release of CO₂, the earth experienced a significant cooling period?

Developed countries are aiming at cutting usage of hydrocarbon by 30% to prevent global warming. But this is what actually happened during the years of the Great Depression. In 1929, production was at 1.17 Gigatons of carbon burned per year. Then the stock markets crashed, the depression hit, and human generation fell to 0.88 Gigatons per year. But the atmospheric CO2 and temperature data at that time actually showed a rise in both temperature and CO2 levels instead of fall. Because human activity is dwarfed by natural forces contributing to the rise.

The aim behind the above analysis is not to prove that climate calamity is a hoax. Instead the situation is critical here. With very limited resources in our hands to rescue, we can ill afford to utilize these in wrong direction. Although the CO2 as harmful gas is highly debatable but there are real damages inflicted upon environment by humans: Water depletion, water contamination, soil degradation, deforestation, heavy metal pollution from industrial drainage and diesel/Power plants.

But as we are looking in wrong direction…so our remedial actions are inflicting more damage. Because we are not fully comprehending the inter connection of all the forces of life here at our Earth. Like Biofuels …Governments all over the world are pushing for biofuels to reduce the usage of hydrocarbons to curb the rise in Co2. This is creating artificial demand for biofuel crops like sugarcane, corn, soybean, palm oil etc. To meet this demand, countries all over the world have gone for massive deforestation like the one In Brazil where vast amounts of the Amazon rain forest have been destroyed for soybean and sugar cane cultivation. In Malaysia, between 1985 and 2000, the development of palm oil plantations was responsible for the deforestation of 87 percent of the country’s forests.

And our eyes can’t see that deforestation first of all will increase the level of co2 as these forest use huge amount of co2 for their food. Also algae in the oceans absorb the bulk of the earth’s CO₂. The algae then convert sunlight and the CO₂ in the ocean into oxygen. Seventy to eighty percent (70%–80%) of this planet’s oxygen is produced by the algae in the oceans. Yet the nitrogen, phosphorous, herbicides, pesticides, insecticides  etc. pouring into the oceans around the world as a result of High intensity agriculture and biofuels production are destroying the very element that produces the bulk of that oxygen—the algae in the oceans. Also we don’t count for huge water requirement of these crops…like producing 1kg of sugarcane requires around 12000 liters of water.

Someone with full stomach and full pocket can give lecture on dieting and organic foods. But what about those poor who live on one meal per day…that too of bare rice? How can we argue in favor of expensive renewable power when many people can’t afford more than candle or kerosene? These poor people can’t be ignored as they are also an important part of a much larger environment, because these are the ones who supplied us with cheap labour, much needed for producing low cost goods.

Demand for food and energy is huge and unmet. Organic food and biofuels/renewable are not viable substitutes because food and energy is not a privilege but a fundamental right. We need to produce food and energy in a cheap and sustainable manner. And this is where technology has to play a huge and vital role. We need to introduce breakthrough technological innovations to change the way we live. Good news is that concrete efforts are being put for the same throughout the world. Efforts in the fields of energy storage, micro irrigation, Next Generation Genomics, advanced materials, renewable energy etc are going to revolutionize our world and environment.

It is not possible now to analyze these in detail…however a brief introduction can be given.

Energy storage will be the next big thing. World has invested huge resources into IT sector research over last 30 years or so...but there is one technology which has the potential to change the way we source energy and that is...Energy storage. But we are still using 100 years old technology for storing energy into heavy lead based batteries which are neither cheap nor suitable for storing high amounts of energy. The biggest cost component of solar and wind technology is not the conversion rate of sunlight or wind into energy but how to store these. Storage efficiency will be the biggest factor which will drive the growth of renewable energy.

Now huge research is going on Worldwide for making efficient and cost effective batteries...Nissan has set aside 5 Billion Dollars for research for Batteries for electric vehicles. Pumped hydro electric storage and compressed air energy storage are also going to develop to store large scale energy. Lithium ion batteries will see huge technological development to make them competitive and improving their life span considerably.

Like Next Generation Genomics, Gene sequencing with the help of Information technology has enabled us to discover how genes determine traits or cause disease. Our scientists are developing new techniques to directly write DNA and insert it into cells, producing new organisms, drugs to treat various cancers and producing engineered crops with desired traits.

Advanced materials are mostly Nanomaterial which are made by working on matter at nanoscale. At nanoscale ordinary materials like carbon take on surprising properties like greater reactivity, unusual electrical properties and great strength. These will have wider applications in healthcare, solar energy, manufacturing, water desalination and filtration etc. like Graphene based filters can solve our water shortage issues as it can turn salt water into freshwater removing all other impurities also.