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Ocean Biology and Global Climate |
| Section: NATURAL SCIENCE / AT THE EDGE |
| Author: Paul G. Falkowski and Lisa M. Kirschner |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 4/1/1990 |
| Size: 3,475 Words, 21,157 Characters |
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During the last 150 years, more carbon dioxide has accumulated in the atmosphere than at any time in the past 150,000 years.
In the 150,000 years prior to the Industrial Revolution, the earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations varied from 180 to 290 parts per million of air. During this period, the earth experienced two complete ice age cycles, the most recent of which was at its peak just 18,000 years ago. By 10,000 years ago, the last major glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere had receded.
The advance and recession of major ice sheets covering vast regions of land has been ongoing for more than two million years. These ice age cycles are the result of complex interactions involving air, water, ice, land, lifeforms, radiation from the sun, and long-term variations ...
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... from the surface ocean into the deep ocean for hundreds of years. Such an experiment would amount to a vast tinkering of the global environment in order to sustain a fossil fuel-driven economy. The consequences of this tinkering are incalculable, but at present are being considered by some as an option for mitigating the effects of increasing carbon dioxide levels in the global atmosphere.
(812 of 21,157 characters)
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