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Do negative feedback loops mostly cushion the effect of atmospheric CO2 increases?

Topics: Global Warming Science Climatology

Background

The earth's climate is a system that contains feedback loops. If an input variable changes in a feedback loop, it effects the system in a way that changes the input variable itself. These changes cumulatively increase in a positive feedback loop, but progressively dampen in a negative feedback loop. The concern with increasing CO2, is that more CO2 in the atmosphere will warm the earth, in turn causing more CO2 to be released due to effects such as warmer oceans, i.e. a positive feedback loop.

Implications

Expert Opinions

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Mining Engineer

The Late Ordovician Period [approximately 450 million years ago] was also an Ice Age while at the same time CO2 concentrations then were nearly 12 times higher than today-- 4400 ppm. According to greenhouse theory, Earth should have been exceedingly hot. Instead, global temperatures were no warmer than today. Clearly, other factors besides atmospheric carbon influence earth temperatures and global warming.

19 Dec 2006 Source

Agree

Tom Segalstad

Geology Professor

CO2 in the atmosphere and in the ocean reach a stable balance when the oceans contain 50 times as much CO2 as the atmosphere. The IPCC postulates an atmospheric doubling of CO2, meaning that the oceans would need to receive 50 times more CO2 to obtain chemical equilibrium. This total of 51 times the present amount of carbon in atmospheric CO2 exceeds the known reserves of fossil carbon- it represents more carbon than exists in all the coal, gas, and oil that we can exploit anywhere in the world.

07 Jul 2007 Source

Mostly Agree

Roy Spencer

Meteorologist

The real climate system appears to be dominated by “negative feedbacks” -- instead of the “positive feedbacks” which are displayed by all twenty computerized climate models utilized by the IPCC.

22 Jul 2008 Source

Disagree

Quote

Popular Magazine

Pump enough CO2 into the sky, and that last part per million of greenhouse gas behaves like the 212th degree Fahrenheit that turns a pot of hot water into a plume of billowing steam.

03 Apr 2006 Source

Neutral

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Meteorology Professor

It is quite possible that after an ‘adjustment time' the ocean (which contains far more CO2 than the atmosphere) will simply increase its biological activity and absorb the CO2 from the atmosphere.

04 Dec 2007 Source