Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
in the soil—a tiny contribution to the great global soil carbon reservoir. But with rising
temperatures, decomposing bacteria will swarm more vigorously and more abundantly
through the soil in their ceaseless search for food and nutrients. Wherever they find it,
they will consume the soil carbon, releasing carbon dioxide and methane back to the
atmosphere. Normally, photosynthesis sends more carbon from the atmosphere into the
soil than is released by decomposition, especially in an atmosphere enriched with car-
bon dioxide, but this tidy arrangement is predicted to tip and turn tail when carbon diox-
ide levels in the atmosphere reach about 500 parts per million sometime within the next
10-50 years, as carbon-absorbing photosynthesis is overwhelmed by carbon-releasing
decomposition. Alarmingly, researchers have recently shown that we may have already
tipped over this threshold. To the surprise of experts in this field, soils in England and
Wales during the period 1978 to 2003 have vented carbon to the air at an alarming rate,
not because of land use changes but almost certainly because of climate change. This
is a significant loss of carbon that almost exactly cancels out Britain's technologically
achieved reductions in carbon emissions from 1990 to 2003. The same thing is almost
certainly happening in many other parts of the world, and as soils become a net source of
carbon to the atmosphere, the great planet-warming positive feedbacks receive another
turn of the screw, as higher temperatures release more soil carbon, sending temperatures
spiralling even higher.
Sensing Climate Change
Sit or lie on the ground in your Gaia place, taking in the sounds, sights and smells
around you. Relax deeply, and breathe easily.
Imagine that your taste buds have developed an extraordinary sensitivity for car-
bon dioxide molecules in the air. Spend some time breathing gently, developing
your skill at sensing these vitally important chemical beings as they spin and eddy
in and out of your body.
Now use your newly acquired skill to taste the vast numbers of new carbon dioxide
molecules emitted into the air by our industrial culture.
Feel the presence of these carbon dioxide molecules in your lungs, just as they are
now more present in Gaia's air, oceans and living beings. Taste the huge numbers
of carbon dioxide molecules sent into the air over the last 150 years by our burn-
ing of coal, oil and gas, and by our destruction of forests and peat bogs.
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