Evening star., 1937-07-29
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

Predictions of new. manmade car
bon dioXlde age, such as the period of
dense vegetation which the earth passed
through about 200 900 900 years ago when
the great coal beds were laid down. are
without foundation, according to an an
nouncement Just issued by the American
Chemical Society.
The air normally contains about three
hundredths Of l per cent OF this gas,
poisonous to animal life in any consider
able concentration but essential to plant
growth. Any substantial increase prob
ably would result in great squirt Of plant
growth, other things being equal.
Through the process of photosynthesis
plants are able to extract the carbon out
of their air in the presence OF sunlight
and create out of it the various carbohy-
drates which serve as food for animal life.
Coal is such a carbohydrate. 1t is a
fair assumption that in the distant past
of the carboniferous era the earth must
have been very thickly blanketed with
vegetation. compared to the present, and
this would have called for more carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere. 1t was locked
up in the coal deposits.
Now when coal is burned this carbon
dioxide is released into the atmosphere
again. During the past fifty years more
than 100 900. 900 900 tons of the gas have
been thus freed. according to the calcu-
lations of DR.. Robert E. Wilson in the
American Chemical Society's Journal of
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry.
This amount, if not dissipated in some
way" DR.. Wilson says, sounds like
enough to snuff out most of the animal
life in the world, or in any case to make
a very substantial change in the normal
carbon dioXide concentration of the air.
Calculation indicates, however. that if
all this extra carbon dioxide had been
dumped into the atmosphere and none
removed during this flfty-year period it
would only raise the content from O03
to 0032 per cent.
But this overlooks very important
factor-the function of the ocean in sta
bilizing and regulating the carbon dioxide
content of the air. Available data indi-
cate that there is thirty or forty times
as much carbon dioxide dissolved in the
ocean as is present in the atmosphere,
and the average partial vapor pressure
of this gas is probably what determines
largely the average atmospheric content
Well over 80 per cent of any excess car
bon dioxide introduced into the atmo-
sphere eventually finds it's way into the
ocean, leaving the composition of the
former virtually unaffected.
incidentally 1t appears that the tenn
perature of the ocean, which is consid-
erably influenced by glacial conditions
and polar ice caps, has been and prob
ably will continue to be the most signifi-
cant factor in determining the carbon
dioXide of the air. 1t also appears that
If the small increase In the concentration
of carbon dioxide should occur another
factor would tend to restore the present
balance-namely, a small increase in the
rate of growth of part of the worlds
vegetation. The tremendous quantity
of carbon dioxide consumed every year
by growing vegetation, and practically
all returned by its eventual combustion
or decay, is more than thousand times
the total amount produced by all the
coal and petroleum burned In a year Of
high industrial activity"
During the past half century, DR.. Will
son points out. the world has probably
consumed about per cent of It's
total carbon deposits. including coal.