news.aol.com — The Southern Ocean, One Of The Largest Carbon Sink, Is Already Loaded With Too Much Carbon Dioxide. Scientists Have Made It Clear That This Should Be Quite Alarming. New Alien Species Found In Ocean, Creepy Stuff. "The Southern Ocean is one of the world's biggest reservoirs of carbon, known as a carbon sink."
May 19, 2007 View in Crawl 4
cdrewMay 19, 2007
Whether or not you believe in global warming, the fact that carbon sinks such as the oceans surrounding Antarctica and dense tropical rain forests such as the Amazon are not absorbing as much carbon emissions as they once were or are at capacity is of great concern. We are stewards of the world in which we live and need to do a better job of balancing our own socioeconomic needs with the environment in which we live.
railerMay 20, 2007
"Whether or not you believe in global warming," I don't so the whole carbon sink thing don't mean s**t. Considering heating has pretty much leveled out for the last decade, I don't see the point of the CO2.
darkmagicMay 20, 2007
It's even simpler than that. We can sit around all day and all agree that the earth is warming. That the carbon sinks are full does not imply the cause!!! Come on people, use a little scientific reason here. What we have NOT proven, yet, is the following:1) What is causing the warming?2) How much does human activity contribute to the warming?3) Can we do enough to stop it without going back to the stone ages ourselves?The answer to 1) is that we really aren't sure yet. We cannot reconcile the fact that while earth is warming, we have NOT reached the AVERAGE world temperature yet when you look back thousands of years (if you only look back 100 years, then yes, we are technically above average, but 100 years is a pimple on mother earth's butt!), so it can be argued that we are simply coming back from a cold snap, that these temperate climates were never the real true average of the earth. Fact two: Mars and other planets are experiencing global warming as well... Why? We must answer that question first before we go off shouting that the SUV is falling.Answer to 2) So far, it looks like a tiny fractional amount. Here's just one of MANY links from very smart scientists on this matter.. <a class="user" href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaruherald/4064691a6571.html">http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaruherald/4064691a6571.html</a>Answer to 3) Utterly impossible. Why would ANY nation destroy their economies and let India, China, and the rest of the developing world etc. just ignore the issue and blow all that CO2 into the atmosphere instead? You want to see WWIII real quick? Try forcing people to not raise their standards of living for 100 years. What is the solution? At this point, we really have to reconcile ourselves that we as the human "species" may at some point overpopulate and destroy this earth. We will probably use up our resources way before we fry ourselves (if that's even possible). The problem with crying "wolf" and having everyone stop innovating (or being able to afford to innovate and make money etc.) is that innovation is the ONLY long term solution to our not destroying ourselves as a species. Sticking some SUV's in a garage just ain't gonna cut it.As a separate issue, I think it's scandalous that the people who sit there and wag their little snotty fingers at us all to "save the earth" are the very ones riding around in their SUV's and Hummers and private jets and heating their 7,000 sq.ft homes with fuel oil. When they start setting an example, like some of us did in the 1960's by actually giving up earthly possessions and living on a commune. Until they do that, then they should just shut up and get back to work.YES !!! That the earth is heating up is a problem. Part of that problem is that there are too many people chasing too little land near oceans etc that ARE going to go underwater at some point in the future, whether we let too many cows fart methane into the atmosphere or not. Population control is still an issue for this planet and that is something we can actually do something about.