Science is built on unbiased observation ... and I have seen a few things during these last shutdown weeks that have me sitting up and taking notice. Relaxing in my easy chair early every morning drinking my coffee, I have watched the Spring advance from my same observation spot for a number of years. I can see, through our big glass doors how the sun-rise position inches across the horizon from South to North.
Today this bright sunlight is not filtered through our big silver maple tree leaves behind our house ... like in prior years ... and so I have noticed something interesting this year —- the leaves are still in bud ... whereas in previous years at this time, they were in full large healthy green leaves when then I didn’t have to shade my eyes in the brightness. Now I do. Why are things different this year?
Because of the coronavirus lockdown, there is virtually no air traffic ... and very little car traffic. So this must mean substantially less carbon dioxide is being emitted. How much less is uncertain., but I would love to have a number. And, if Al Gore is right, this would be resulting in cooler temperatures. Yes, Spring does seem a little late this year ... but is something else also at work?
Are the trees still in bud because things might be slightly cooler? Or is it because they have not as much to eat? Maybe, just maybe, our flora has gotten used to a groaning larder of CO2 food ... and now we have put them back on a starvation diet? And that is why Spring has been delayed ... and I must shade my eyes in the early morning ... since the silver maple, out of spite, is not doing its shading job this year.
I don’t think that we realize how voracious feeders plants and trees are. With the advent of mankind burning hydrocarbons, we have put much more CO2 into our atmosphere,. Yet our flora is gobbling it up almost as fast as we can produce it. Carbon dioxide, at its low point, was about 0.03% of what we breath ... despite all we many animals exhaling this gas ... and our burning wood and coal to cook and stay warm. Now, burning oil and natural gas have put much, much more CO2 out there ... but our flora keeps digesting it almost as fast as we make it. Its concentration has risen to only about 0.04% (up 10 parts per million) ... showing how hungry our plants are. And, of late is now temporarily going back down because of the coronavirus halting travel.
Bottom line: Why are we spending billions on developing carbon sequestering technologies when Mother Nature has already given us one — flora, hungering to be fed CO2. Just plant a whole bunch more fast-growing trees.
