Tuesday, May 05, 2020

PPM


Parts per Million (PPM). This is how the we measure the concentration of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere ... and, so you know dear reader, this measure has roughly grown from 300 PPM to 400 PPM during the course of our increased use of hydrocarbons during the last hundred years or so. But, you know what? The rarity of this metric escapes most viewers. So let’s reshape things. Assume you enter a banquet hall with 10,000 place settings ... 400 PPM would equate to just 4 place settings in this large hall actually containing food (in this case carbon dioxide canapés)! Pretty sparse, eh?

Now, imagine that our flora (trees, grass, bushes, crops, seaweed, etc., etc.) are dinner guests at this sparse banquet. Our flora would be constrained to these four place settings. Yes, the plates would be constantly replenished ... but the diners would be aggressive in their hunger ... in order to grow and be healthy. (Which flora WE need to have to grow and be healthy.) This, pretty much, analogizes our current global ecology.

”CO2 is our friend.”

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