shields@yunccn.UUCP (Paul Shields) (04/23/89)
In article <1673@ccnysci.UUCP>, patth@ccnysci.UUCP (Patt Haring) writes: > Based on six years of data collected by weather satellites, > oceanographer Alan E. Strong said he found the sea surface > warming at a rate of one tenth of a celsius degree a year between > 1982 and 1988. > [...] > "We may be just beginning to witness that onset of this warming" > caused by the release of heat-trapping gases such as carbon > dioxide and methane into the global atmosphere, Strong said. > The major shortcoming of his study, Strong said, is that there is > no long-term record of sea surfacce temperatures from earlier > periods. -- Robert Cooke BTW, I was just reading about the Greenhouse effect thru CO2 and methane. See "Global Climate Change", by R.A. Houghton and G.M. Woodwell, Scientific American, 260:4 p36-44 April 1989. The authors expect warming trends, "rapid now, [to] become even more rapid as a result of the warming itself, and ... [to] continue into the indefinite future unless we take deliberate steps to slow or stop it." They call for "a 50 percent reduction in the global consumption of fossil fuels, a halting of deforestation, a massive program of reforestation." I have a few questions for the more knowledgeable: 1. To what extent do algae and other ocean plant-life contribute to the total photosynthesis on the earth? 2. The oceans "release about 100 billion tons [of carbon] and absorb 104" annually through physicochemical processes(Houghton et al, p38.) CO2 dissolves more readily in cold water than in warm water. As the surface water heats up, the oceans should not be able to absorb as much CO2. At some point shouldn't this effect cause a net release of CO2? Thanks, -- Paul Shields, shields@yunccn.UUCP