At the risk of being "on topic," I'm gonna post this here.
Sorry if I'm just repeating someone else's "news" from another thread, but I think this is....
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Nov.18, 2008
Cornell Chronicle: Black carbon affects climate predictions
A detailed analysis of black carbon -- the residue of burned organic matter -- in computer climate models suggests that those models may be overestimating global warming predictions.
A new Cornell study, published online in Nature Geosciences, quantified the amount of black carbon in Australian soils and found that there was far more than expected, said Johannes Lehmann, the paper's lead author and a Cornell professor of biogeochemistry.
The findings are significant because soils are by far the world's largest source of carbon dioxide, producing 10 times more carbon dioxide each year than all the carbon dioxide emissions from human activities combined. Small changes in how carbon emissions from soils are estimated, therefore, can have a large impact. ....
"We know from measurements that climate change today is worse than people have predicted," said Lehmann. "But this particular aspect, black carbon's stability in soil, if incorporated in climate models, would actually decrease climate predictions."
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"It's a mistake to look at soil as one blob of carbon," said Lehmann. "Rather, it has different chemical components with different characteristics. In this way, soil will interact differently to warming based on what's in it."
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"...overestimating global warming predictions."
...maybe in this one area, but they're no doubt underestimating in other areas.
Not to be an apologist, but I just don't want quotes like the above to be used as "rock-solid evidence." No doubt it'll only be a few days....
Stuff like this is a part of a holistic undertanding of soil/climate dynamics,
yet to be fully discovered, IMHO.
~
p.s. I wouldn't have run across this link without a bit of web-wandering, motivated by
that great Nat.Geo. Link
"Lost Cities of the Amazon."
Expedition Week | Lost Cities of the Amazon | National Geographic Channel
(1-2pm Sunday!)
Thanks all!!!
