Scientists Surprised to Find Earth's Biosphere Booming

Scientists Surprised to Find Earth's Biosphere Booming

news.slashdot.org

An article from the Financial Post says that recent studies of biosphere imaging from the NASA SEAWIFS satellite indicate that the Earth's biomass is booming: 'The results surprised Steven Running of the University of Montana and Ramakrishna Nemani of NASA, scientists involved in analyzing the NASA satellite data. They found that over a period of almost two decades, the Earth as a whole became more bountiful by a whopping 6.2%. About 25% of the Earth's vegetated landmass — almost 110 million square kilometers — enjoyed significant increases and only 7% showed significant declines. When the satellite data zooms in, it finds that each square meter of land, on average, now produces almost 500 grams of greenery per year.' Their 2004 study, and other more recent ones, point to the warming of the planet and the presence of CO2, fertilizing the biota and resulting in the increased green side effect.

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Interesting, it would appear that we humans have actually been living on a rather barren earth and that with a new release of CO2 (by humans or by the earth itself) into the atmosphere the plants (and animals that consume them) are thriving. With the looming "food crisis," it appears that earth is actually moving to sustain more life...funny how things come full circle in nature, isn't it?

news.slashdot.org
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 9-6-2008 by yellowcard]

hmmm, all this from satellite data, I suggest you do not hold your breath. Scientists who study this stuff on the ground would have a DIFFERENT opinion. The consensus in the scientific community is that every single biotic community on the planet is currently in decline. More green seen from space does little to reassure me that the earth is currently increasing its biologic stability.

Hi Animal, have to agree with you on this one. I fail to see how our green mass could be growing, what with increasing population needing to develop rural areas. I just read last week where the U.S. has lost alot of farm/rural area land to development.
This just doesn't sound right.

I'm not terribly surprised, I don't really buy into the whole man made global warming thing. The Earth has been much hotter and more tropical before and when it was like that there were epic rainforests and colossal vegetation almost everywhere. Just because we humans need a certain comfortable climate doesn't mean the rest of the world can't thrive in a more tropical environment. I mean just look at South America, hot, tropical and home to the freakin Amazon jungle which is so thick we still haven't contacted all the tribes living therein.

Quantity is not quality, we might have more ocean algae and less rainforest or some similar situation. But I do agree that going after CO2 is silly in the extreme.

Originally posted by Animal
hmmm, all this from satellite data, I suggest you do not hold your breath. Scientists who study this stuff on the ground would have a DIFFERENT opinion. The consensus in the scientific community is that every single biotic community on the planet is currently in decline. More green seen from space does little to reassure me that the earth is currently increasing its biologic stability.

Could you do us all a favor and support your claim of what the "Consensus" is?

Otherwise your just flailing your arms like a muppet. :-)

This was the most insightful post in that article...

Those who've been saying that we might want to do something about the greenhouse effect before it's too late have been characterised as leftist loonies who care more about the planet and other animals than humans and human civilisation. In some cases they're right - there is a liberal dose of the usual extremist greenie suspects in the climate change movement - but I really wonder whether those people actually know what they're fighting for. Because, frankly, the stated aims of environmentalists - improving the forests, saving the fuzzy animals, and so on, is actually served by the increasing CO2 in the atmosphere, as plants grow better in richer CO2 atmospheres and that leads to a stronger biosphere all round. By and large, there's very few better things we could have done with our intelligence for the continuance of life on Earth than releasing all of the trapped CO2 back into the atmosphere so that it can be used again.

reply to post by Quazga


you have so much to learn about biology and ecology if you think increased c02= better growing conditions....

life is not so simple, it would be nice if it was, but, no...

Originally posted by Animal
reply to post by Quazga

 

you have so much to learn about biology and ecology if you think increased c02= better growing conditions....

life is not so simple, it would be nice if it was, but, no...

Could you be so nice as to post support for your hunches?

Life is actually that simple btw. Equilibrium is the rule.

I think theres algae is growing inside NASA's heads...... So we study the way life reacts from pictures now? So I can look at the things on TV an consider them real too right. lol

This means that the earth is intaking more Miracle grow ( TM ) lol but i've grown plants too, an specially in a green house, theres a zone where if the conditions are just right plants grow like its a race, But just a millihair on the other side an your plants die or grow bad fungal due to the millihair offset.

Just becuz we tan very easily now doesnt mean we are getting healthier......

[edit on 9-6-2008 by Trance Optic]

Originally posted by Animal
reply to post by Quazga

 

you have so much to learn about biology and ecology if you think increased c02= better growing conditions....

life is not so simple, it would be nice if it was, but, no...

Actually it is pretty simple, that's why people have large amounts of CO2 in their greenhouses. It's not like your putting an exhaust pipe over the plants to make them grow, there are other gases in those fumes that can damage and kill plants, straight CO2 has no damage on plants. With sufficient water, sunlight, nitrogen and CO2 a plant can thrive.

Originally posted by Trance Optic
I think theres algae is growing inside NASA's heads...... So we study the way life reacts from pictures now? So I can look at the things on TV an consider them real too right. lol

This means that the earth is intaking more Miracle grow ( TM ) lol but i've grown plants too, an specially in a green house, theres a zone where if the conditions are just right plants grow like its a race, But just a millihair on the other side an your plants die or grow bad fungal due to the millihair offset.

Just becuz we tan very easily now doesnt mean we are getting healthier......

[edit on 9-6-2008 by Trance Optic]

Miracle Grow is mostly nitrogen...anyhow your analysis is quite wrong. What is on your TV has actually occurred, just because you can't touch it doesn't mean it never occurred...it's like saying I took a picture of a tree, but unless you can touch the tree it doesn't exist? What? That makes no sense. We can measure biomass with various tools, from outer space, and likely get an even better picture than one could on the ground because you can see the vastness and the depth of the new plant life. Usually deaths in a greenhouse are due to the lack of knowledge in how a specific plant grows. For instance, you wouldn't plant just one row of corn, otherwise it won't grow...because it can't cross pollinate correctly....

[edit on 9-6-2008 by yellowcard]

Now, I'm willing to be wrong about this but I once heard that we receive more oxygen from ocean born algae than we do from the whole of the Amazon rain forest. I think what a lot of these Doom and Gloomers are not considering is the amount of aquatic plant life. It's obviously more than just an increase in ambient CO2 it's also an increase in temperature that leads to better growing conditions. Just think about it, plants grow beautifully in a greenhouse but if you were to try to live inside one you'd probably die.

Originally posted by Trance Optic
I think theres algae is growing inside NASA's heads...... So we study the way life reacts from pictures now? So I can look at the things on TV an consider them real too right. lol

This means that the earth is intaking more Miracle grow ( TM ) lol but i've grown plants too, an specially in a green house, theres a zone where if the conditions are just right plants grow like its a race, But just a millihair on the other side an your plants die or grow bad fungal due to the millihair offset.

Just becuz we tan very easily now doesnt mean we are getting healthier......

[edit on 9-6-2008 by Trance Optic]

So much uneducated and unsubstantiated childish vitriol.

When will it end?

Originally posted by Animal
hmmm, all this from satellite data, I suggest you do not hold your breath. Scientists who study this stuff on the ground would have a DIFFERENT opinion. The consensus in the scientific community is that every single biotic community on the planet is currently in decline. More green seen from space does little to reassure me that the earth is currently increasing its biologic stability.

"Empirical evidence trumps theory [and "consensus"] every time."

Any geophysicist could have told them this would happen. It's the basic Daisyworld scenario.

reply to post by Snap


I have no idea what you are trying to say, would you mind elaborating?

Yes the amount of Biomass on earth is booming because of increased food, CO2 and intensive farming techniques. However, the Biodiversity has plummeted leaving niches open to simple invasive species that spread like wildfire when given a chance. This is NOT a good thing and those that are trying to spin it as such are either stupid or willfully ignorant.

Originally posted by Animal
reply to post by Snap

 

I have no idea what you are trying to say...

What he is saying, is that when you try to base fact on "Consensus" you are playing a fools game. And when you claim there is "Consensus" without supporting it with evidence, you are just sounding like an idiot.

[edit on 9-6-2008 by Quazga]

reply to post by Quazga

A new United Nations report says we are using up our natural resources too fast and are in danger of destroying about two-thirds of the Earth's ecosystems.

The Millennium Assessment, released Wednesday, warns that 15 of 24 global ecosystems are in decline and that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow much worse in the next 50 years. link

I am going to keep it coming, this is the result of a 2 minute search on Google, something you may want to try some time. Fine bash me because I provided no links. When I get back from my hike I will put some time into SHOWING you the MONEY.

Edit to add: I really do not appreciate your obvious choice to show me disrespect, it really pisses me off and quite honestly does nothing to add to the conversation. In the future I would really appreciate if you could find more constructive and less insulting ways of sharing your view of my statements.

[edit on 9-6-2008 by Animal]