Global Warming?

[For want of a better word]

a little voice inside my head just said......
go stick your hand in a bucket of water....
... now take it out....
.. has the bucket of water changed in the slighted way?

I must go and lay down!

 

[Skyhook]

a little voice inside my head just said......
go stick your hand in a bucket of water....
... now take it out....
.. has the bucket of water changed in the slighted way?

I must go and lay down!

'Well I put my feet in water
Just to see what could be seen,
And the water got quite dirty
And my feet they got quite clean'

(No Sleep Blues- Incredible String Band)




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[oliver90owner]

Storm & Skyhook

Please don't forget all the carboniferous rocks. Limestone has quite a lot of sequestered carbon dioxide locked away. Pure chalk is 44% carbon dioxide.

All that stone came from somewhere - any ideas? Couldn't possibly have been the atmosphere, could it? Well, the carbon dioxide bit of it.

 

[Hivemaker.]

All that stone came from somewhere - any ideas?

Came from a quarry about ten miles from where i live,they took loads of it from that quarry

 

[oliver90owner]

they took loads of it from that quarry

Hope they didn't make cement with it! All that carbon dioxide driven off in the cement kiln and using coal to do it! Terrible! I remember when each tonne of cement needed a quarter tonne, or more, of coal, just to fire the cement kiln.

RAB

 

[Skyhook]

Storm & Skyhook

Please don't forget all the carboniferous rocks. Limestone has quite a lot of sequestered carbon dioxide locked away. Pure chalk is 44% carbon dioxide.

All that stone came from somewhere - any ideas? Couldn't possibly have been the atmosphere, could it? Well, the carbon dioxide bit of it.

Like you don't know They are the mortal remains of various lifeforms, from algae to crustaceans.

The early atmosphere was basically nitrogen, CO2, and methane. When life started, photosynthesising plants (initially cyanobacteria types, later higher plants) flourished. The huge amounts of photosynthesis going on removed CO2 from the atmosphere, laying down the carbon in rocks and oil deposits, and producing a toxic by-product. The toxic by-product was oxygen, which put a cap on the rate of photosynthesis, but allowed animal life to develope.

 

[Skyhook]

Came from a quarry about ten miles from where i live,they took loads of it from that quarry

 

[oliver90owner]

The early atmosphere was basically nitrogen, CO2, and methane.

Thanks for that, Skyhook. Very interesting and truly educational.

That gets me to wondering how, when this ol' planet was formed, that it managed to have all that N2, CO2 and CH4, floating around a melted blob of 'rock', like it must have been.

And all that water (H2O) Did a God (or Gods) pour water over the planet to cool it? Or worse still, P on it? No wonder we are really thankful of our Gods, whatever form they may take (totum poles, gold statues, totally invisible, etc).

TIA, RAB

 

[drstitson]

since the planet has been through various transformations over it's existence i like to argue that one should perhaps let mankind (just the latest transforming influence) do what it wants and wipe itself out, leaving good old planet earth to heal itself ready for the next cycle.

the only special thing about mankind is that we are aware of what we are doing.

 

[oliver90owner]

we are aware of what we are doing.

Som factions might question that statement.

 

[Skyhook]

The early atmosphere was basically nitrogen, CO2, and methane.

Thanks for that, Skyhook. Very interesting and truly educational.

That gets me to wondering how, when this ol' planet was formed, that it managed to have all that N2, CO2 and CH4, floating around a melted blob of 'rock', like it must have been.

And all that water (H2O) Did a God (or Gods) pour water over the planet to cool it? Or worse still, P on it? No wonder we are really thankful of our Gods, whatever form they may take (totum poles, gold statues, totally invisible, etc).

TIA, RAB

Had to look up TIA. I'm guessing it's Thanks In Advance, not This Is Anfield

Of course the molten blob of rock was a molten blob of all sorts of stuff- all the minerals we have now to say the least. Everything other than Hydrogen and helium was formed with particles getting mashed together in supernovae. That would include oxygen. There is a theory that water arrived here by comets (which are mostly ice), but I can't see why Hydrogen oxide is a less likely thing to find here than silicon oxide or anything else.

I really hope its not god-wee.

 

[drstitson]

sorry rab - too late to edit and add "some of us" or "allegedly".

but agreed we have the potential to be aware of our actions.

 

[JamezF]

Of course the molten blob of rock was a molten blob of all sorts of stuff- all the minerals we have now to say the least. Everything other than Hydrogen and helium was formed with particles getting mashed together in supernovae. That would include oxygen. There is a theory that water arrived here by comets (which are mostly ice), but I can't see why Hydrogen oxide is a less likely thing to find here than silicon oxide or anything else.

The current view (as I understand it) is that all the elements other that hydrogen are produced by nuclear fusion in stars until they reach iron. After that there just isn't enough mass left in the star to fuse the nuclei further and the production of heavier elements (again by fusion) requires the kind of energies that occur in supernovae. As the stars die, much of their mass is blown out into space, producing enormous clouds of material that subsequently accretes into new stars and sometimes planets.

Elements aren't the only things that occur in these clouds though. Spectroscopic analysis reveals that all sorts of organic compounds (and others) such as methane, carbon dioxide, water and even more complex molecules are produced, and are present in huge volumes in some nebulae.

It still seems amazing to me that these processes can result in so much complexity, perhaps because it's so hard to grasp the scale of even our own solar system, let alone the rest of the universe. Looking at the sun is tricky, but the moon appears the same size in the sky so it can be used for a comparison. The Earth will fit 100 times across the diameter of the sun. Despite all the "stuff" floating about in the solar system, the sun still makes up almost 99.9% of the solar system's mass. The earth, enormous as it seems, makes up a few hundredths of a percent. That's how small we are. And our sun isn't even a particularly large or bright star. It isn't big enough to create a supernova at the end of its life. Those that do burn so fiercely that they can outshine the entire galaxy they're in. Imagine something so bright that it outshines billions of stars. I can't get my head around it.

I'm wandering wildly off-topic even for this thread now, but next time the sky is clear at night (any time in the next few months), look around and find the brightest "star" you can. If you have a good view of the sky, chances are it won't be a star at all. It will be Jupiter. Jupiter is *so* big that sunlight travels 780 million km to reach it, gets reflected back at least 630 million km to Earth (which takes it about 75 minutes), and you can see it with the naked eye. Look at it with a reasonable pair of binoculars and you'll not only see it as round, but you might be able to make out some of the banding and see one or more of the four major moons. Now don't you feel small?

James

 

[For want of a better word]

since the planet has been through various transformations over it's existence i like to argue that one should perhaps let mankind (just the latest transforming influence) do what it wants and wipe itself out, leaving good old planet earth to heal itself ready for the next cycle.

the only special thing about mankind is that we are aware of what we are doing.

GAIA HYPOTHESIS ANYONE ?





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[Drew]

Now don't you feel small?

Now don't you feel small A little link

 

[Skyhook]

The current view (as I understand it) is that all the elements other that hydrogen are produced by nuclear fusion in stars until they reach iron. After that there just isn't enough mass left in the star to fuse the nuclei further and the production of heavier elements (again by fusion) requires the kind of energies that occur in supernovae. As the stars die, much of their mass is blown out into space, producing enormous clouds of material that subsequently accretes into new stars and sometimes planets.

Elements aren't the only things that occur in these clouds though. Spectroscopic analysis reveals that all sorts of organic compounds (and others) such as methane, carbon dioxide, water and even more complex molecules are produced, and are present in huge volumes in some nebulae.

James

Thanks James, great clarification.

 

[For want of a better word]

a BIG BANG then?​

​

 

[drstitson]

NO. a moderately large bang in the grand scheme of things but not a big bang. that's special.

 

[JamezF]

I should have said "After that there just isn't enough mass left in small stars". Of course supernovae *are* dying stars. Just very large ones.

James

 

[Hivemaker.]

Betelgeuse,betelgeuse,betel......... better not risk it.