Humans may think that they can improve plant productivity by pumping CO2 into the atmosphere, said to be “plant food.” They forget that Gaia always knows best and the final result may be exactly the opposite of what they expect. (image by Microsoft Image Creator)
I can personally vouch for at least some of the negative physical effects of a rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration. Half a lifetime ago in the military, I was stationed on submarine duty. We made our own atmosphere, and there was a system that monitored the concentrations of all the different atmospheric gases. Once in awhile, CO2 would get a bit too high because our CO2 scrubber would break down, at which point many people developed bad headaches even though O2 was adequate.
Submariners are exposed to CO2 pressures that are widely variable. Can go even over 10.000 ppm. The reported effect is headaches, indeed. There are some studies that indicate that the atmosphere inside a submarine may affect the decision-making capability of people, but not many. I suspect that the authorities do not encourage these studies or, at least, the results are not widely disseminated,
If memory serves (forgive me, it was a long time ago!), 1% (10K ppm) was the limit beyond which we would go to our backup method of using CO2-absorbing cartridges. Up to that point, a rise above the norm was tolerated until personnel started to complain.
What we may expect to see with these minor (in geological timescale) CO2 changes, is ecosystem adaptations, as plants which can take up more CO2 and create more functional biomass do so. This will be more in some places than others. A lot of climate may be changing, and living ecosystems adapt. There will be first, second and subsequent order adaptations, over centuries, and other big changes are likely to also happen, as they have throughout millions and billions of years.
All of us will soon die, probably not all at once. Can we make beneficial contributions?
I can personally vouch for at least some of the negative physical effects of a rise in atmospheric CO2 concentration. Half a lifetime ago in the military, I was stationed on submarine duty. We made our own atmosphere, and there was a system that monitored the concentrations of all the different atmospheric gases. Once in awhile, CO2 would get a bit too high because our CO2 scrubber would break down, at which point many people developed bad headaches even though O2 was adequate.
Submariners are exposed to CO2 pressures that are widely variable. Can go even over 10.000 ppm. The reported effect is headaches, indeed. There are some studies that indicate that the atmosphere inside a submarine may affect the decision-making capability of people, but not many. I suspect that the authorities do not encourage these studies or, at least, the results are not widely disseminated,
If memory serves (forgive me, it was a long time ago!), 1% (10K ppm) was the limit beyond which we would go to our backup method of using CO2-absorbing cartridges. Up to that point, a rise above the norm was tolerated until personnel started to complain.
What we may expect to see with these minor (in geological timescale) CO2 changes, is ecosystem adaptations, as plants which can take up more CO2 and create more functional biomass do so. This will be more in some places than others. A lot of climate may be changing, and living ecosystems adapt. There will be first, second and subsequent order adaptations, over centuries, and other big changes are likely to also happen, as they have throughout millions and billions of years.
All of us will soon die, probably not all at once. Can we make beneficial contributions?