Geo-engineering...

Stealhead · 07-31-13, 11:28 AM

The problem with planting more trees(any plant produces oxygen) is that as the human population grows good land becomes more and more scarce.In the end the more serious problem facing Earth/the human race is over population that will cause very serious problems long before a failed environment will.I do not think that the ideas like the one you linked are so great either.We do not know what the long term effects are.

I am unsure if you could plant enough trees to counter the negative effect anyway they can only do so much.Plants need water to convert carbon dioxide into O2 and water is another element that is diminishing.

Also as the world ages the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere gets lower and lower.Millions of years ago there was a much higher ratio of oxygen in the air which is one of the reasons why insects and other animals could grow to be so large in comparison to their average size now that change occurred long before all of the pollution we have now and all of our added pollution.If dinosaur farts where too much to handle for the plants of long ago (which where far larger and more abundant) it does not bode well.On top of all that there most likely where only a few hundred thousand of every
dinosaur species alive at any one time of course there where many other smaller animals but they where they had the largest impact at the time.What caused the dinosaurs to die out was not one single event but several major changes they where very well adapted to their environment(sounds familiar only we adapt the environment to suit us) so much so that if something major changed like the specific thing that they ate they could not easily adapt to something different so they died out.I think we have the same weaknesses.Look at the staples that we rely on if they where to take a major hit millions of people would starve.

I think in the long term no matter what we do Earth will become a pretty barren place some things we simply can not control and it is in our nature to ignore serious problems and focus on day to day survival a useful trait 150,000 years ago but not so much now.

07-31-13, 11:28 AM	#3
Stealhead Navy Seal Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: Kentucky Posts: 5,421 Downloads: 85 Uploads: 0	The problem with planting more trees(any plant produces oxygen) is that as the human population grows good land becomes more and more scarce.In the end the more serious problem facing Earth/the human race is over population that will cause very serious problems long before a failed environment will.I do not think that the ideas like the one you linked are so great either.We do not know what the long term effects are. I am unsure if you could plant enough trees to counter the negative effect anyway they can only do so much.Plants need water to convert carbon dioxide into O2 and water is another element that is diminishing. Also as the world ages the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere gets lower and lower.Millions of years ago there was a much higher ratio of oxygen in the air which is one of the reasons why insects and other animals could grow to be so large in comparison to their average size now that change occurred long before all of the pollution we have now and all of our added pollution.If dinosaur farts where too much to handle for the plants of long ago (which where far larger and more abundant) it does not bode well.On top of all that there most likely where only a few hundred thousand of every dinosaur species alive at any one time of course there where many other smaller animals but they where they had the largest impact at the time.What caused the dinosaurs to die out was not one single event but several major changes they where very well adapted to their environment(sounds familiar only we adapt the environment to suit us) so much so that if something major changed like the specific thing that they ate they could not easily adapt to something different so they died out.I think we have the same weaknesses.Look at the staples that we rely on if they where to take a major hit millions of people would starve. I think in the long term no matter what we do Earth will become a pretty barren place some things we simply can not control and it is in our nature to ignore serious problems and focus on day to day survival a useful trait 150,000 years ago but not so much now. Last edited by Stealhead; 07-31-13 at 11:45 AM.