Ian Bradford: The Continued Emission of CO2 is Coming from the Oceans NOT from Human Activities

We shall start with a slightly different form of a graph I have show before.  I remind you that graphs of this type going back a long way in time are put together using proxies. Proxies are physical characteristics that give an indication of such things as temperature and amount of CO_2. For example, if tree rings are close together, it signals slow growth and therefore low temperatures. 

Note the decreasing amount of carbon dioxide. If that level was allowed to fall to about 150 ppm (parts per million), then most plants would die and so would we. It would seem very irresponsible to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at this time. Between 146 million years ago and the present, carbon dioxide has fallen at a steady rate. For at least half of this time the Earth’s temperature remained steady at about 20 deg C. So the temperature did not fall even though carbon dioxide was falling. Going back to about 600 million years ago, carbon dioxide rose to about 3500 ppm, but the Earth’s temperature dropped to slightly less than it is at present. Using a bit of common sense, it seems there is no correlation between the amount of carbon dioxide and the earth’s temperature. This can be seen at other parts of the graph also like 400 million years ago when carbon dioxide fell and the Earth’s temperature rose.

As someone has written:  “Communism and the Nazi party came to power because they realised that common sense had to be dethroned.”

In a previous article I suggested that the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere over the past 50 years or more was coming from the oceans- not from humans. A critic wrote that scientists can tell from the isotopes of carbon in carbon dioxide that the carbon dioxide poured into the atmosphere in the past 50 years is coming from humans.  

The Isotopes of Carbon

An isotope is an atom with more or less neutrons than usual.  The most common isotope of carbon is carbon 12. This has 6 protons in the nucleus and 6 neutrons.  Then there is carbon 13 with 7 neutrons and carbon 14 with 8 neutrons and this isotope is radioactive.

·      C₁₂   is about 98.9% of all carbon,

·        C₁₃ is about 1%, and C₁₄  makes up a very tiny amount. C₁₄ is not present in fossil fuels extracted from underground. Fossil fuels were formed millions of years ago and since the half life of C₁₄ is 5730 years, by the time they are dug up there is no C₁₄ left, as it has all decayed away.  So one of the alarmists’ arguments is that the vast majority of excess CO₂ does not contain C₁₄ and therefore can be attributed to fossil fuels. [Not sure what is meant by excess CO₂.]

·      Plants have a preference for C₁₂,  rather than C₁₃, but they do absorb C₁₃, so when plants, trees etc are burnt  C₁₂  with a slightly reduced amount of C₁₃, in carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere.  This means the ratio of C₁₃ to C₁₂   in the atmosphere is reduced slightly- the alarmists second argument. 

·      The third argument is that when fossil fuels are burnt, oxygen is used. The alarmists say that oxygen levels have decreased.       

Let’s take the third argument first.  As more carbon dioxide is put into the atmosphere plant growth increases substantially, as carbon dioxide is plant food. In fact, the whole planet has been greening in the past few years. More plants, therefore more oxygen.  So I think oxygen levels have actually increased, not decreased. 

The picture gives the increase in greening of the Earth from 1982 to 2015.  Most areas have seen a considerable increase in plant growth.  The small chart at the bottom  gives the change in leaf area and there is a large amount of green on the Earth map corresponding to the right of the chart. 

I’ll deal with the first two arguments later.  

The Very Warm Interior of the Earth

On July 18^th 2011 the national Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and agency of the US government, declared in Scientific American and also in Nature Geoscience  that more than half the heat that keeps planet Earth from freezing comes from the fission reactor a the Earth’s core. The other half of the heat that keeps life possible on Earth comes from the sun. The Earth’s core is at a temperature of 6230 deg C. – equal to the temperature of the surface of the sun. 

No research paper regarding climate change has ever written includes the 50% contribution to the Earth’s warming coming from the Earth’s core. Current data describing Man- Made climate change is flawed by at least 50%.  No computer models have included the heat input from the Earth’s core. Further, there is also no data representing the energy released from the thousands of volcanoes erupting under the oceans every year in any document to be found regarding climate change.  Volcanic activity is increasing, especially since 1990. 

The graph gives the number of volcanic eruptions per decade since 1850 to 2010.  These are land volcanoes, but it is likely undersea volcanoes follow the same pattern.  

Satellite based thermal scanning of the Earth’s oceans by NASA have shown that there may be as many as 3 million volcanoes down under the oceans (New Scientist July 9^th 2007). Above ground in places like Hawaii, Iceland, Mexico, or Indonesia there are only 500 active volcanoes. There may be 6,000 times more volcanoes under the oceans than there are above ground. Very little is known about these volcanoes under the oceans. 

Under the oceans is the Mid Ocean Ridge. It is 80,000 km long, and is in a continuous state of volcanic eruption and seismic activity. It is always leaking out lava. 

We have periods when La Nina dominates our weather. La Nina usually means we have a cooler spell. In 2011 we had La Nina. Consequently, 2011 should have been a slightly cooler year, but in fact we have a very warm year. IPCC like these years because they tell us it was the warmest year since.... global warming reigns.  That year 2011 just happened to coincide with an eruption of Axial Seamount. In 1998 we had another La Nina and so again we would expect a cool year. It was in fact, one of the warmest years for some time. Once again, it coincided with an eruption from Axial Seamount. There was another La Nina in 2015 and we had another very warm year, which again coincided with an eruption from Axial Seamount. It appears that this massive undersea volcano has a global warming effect when it erupts. Enough to overcome the cooling effects of a La Nina. What then if undersea volcanoes are causing global warming? 

The Axial Seamount

Axial Seamount is the busiest volcano in the Pacific Northwest. Its peak is about 480km off the Oregon coast, and almost 1.6km beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.  It belongs to a chain of volcanoes which stretches from Oregon to near Alaska- a distance of about 1800km. This chain sits in the boundary between two plates. Hot magma pushes up along the boundary building underwater volcanoes. Axial Seamount is the latest in the chain and is huge. Its base covers the entire city of Austen Texas.  Its lava flows are extensive. The volcano has generated lava flows 15m thick and the total eruptive volume is estimated to be up to 76,000 cubic km. 

Looking back in time, it seems the warmer than normal years coincided with the eruption of the Axial Seamount.  The warming of the ocean currents by the sub-oceanic lava flow can be directly linked to one single volcanic eruption. 

Note: The many ocean currents move this warmed water to other areas. The warmed water does not necessarily stay by the axial Seamount. 

Imaging continues to show that the oceans are warming, and by extension the planet is warming. These images are of water temperatures rising because volcanoes are erupting beneath the oceans all over the world. When a volcano erupts, the water it touches instantly boils and turns to 700 deg C steam. This steam has up to 1,000 times more atmospheric pressure than it would at the surface of the sea.  That steam is pushed to the surface where it evaporates.  It is not just the water that gets warmer, the air above also warms.

The top few metres of the ocean can store as much energy as the entire atmosphere, and relatively small changes in ocean circulation can move vast amounts of heat around the planet. 

Below is a diagram of ocean heat in the Pacific Ocean. Interesting names are given to the three hot spots. All of these hot spots in the ocean are caused by lava leaking out under the ocean at the mid-ocean ridge. The surface temperature is between 1 and 4 deg C higher than normal. Godzilla near the equator has been distributed around the Earth by the Earth’s rotation. 

The “Blob”  is off the coast of Oregon and may be due to the Axial Seamount.

Rising ocean temperatures release carbon dioxide from the oceans for two main reasons. Warmer water holds less carbon dioxide, and melting sea ice increases the rate that the warm and cold water mixes, and this dredges up high concentrations of carbon dioxide from the deep ocean. 

Both of these raise total global carbon dioxide concentrations to levels not seen since the Roman warming period 2000 years ago, or the Middle Ages warming period 600 years ago. This is NOT man-made CO₂.  

So we have volcanoes erupting under the oceans , we have rising water temperatures , we have rising atmospheric temperatures, rising CO₂ levels and rising global temperatures. All these factors have happened repeatedly and unabated nine times in the past 10, 000 years without the help from man or from burning fossil fuels. 

[Check back on the climate alarmists arguments before you read this] 

Let’s look at what we have:  Carbon dioxide is released when fossil fuels like coal and oil are burnt. There is no C₁₄ in fossil fuels coal and oil because it has all decayed away over millions of years.  If we burn trees or vegetation once again there is no C_14, because C₁₄ is radioactive. Plants prefer C₁₂ but  C_13, is also absorbed.   It is found that the composition of carbon dioxide from the oceans is similar in composition to that in the atmosphere.    That is, mostly C₁₂ with a very small amount of C₁₃.  

 

LAND

Fossil fuels         -------emit---------------------------------à      C₁₂   plus  some C₁₃   in CO₂

Vegetation

 

SEA

Carbon Dioxide from seawater   ------emit-----------à       C₁₂ plus   C₁₃   in CO₂

Both sources are putting out the same isotopes of carbon. 

So we have the 4% of carbon dioxide from humans with a little C₁₃ in it all mixed with a huge amount of carbon dioxide from the oceans  again with C₁₃.  So the mixture is mostly C₁₂ with a very slightly lower ratio of C₁₃ to C₁₂   because the plants prefer C₁₂. Because the contribution from humans is so tiny the reduced ratio of C₁₃ to C₁₂ would not be noticeable. 

Humans are NOT responsible for the increasing amount of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere.  Nearly all of it is coming from the oceans. 

I just remind readers that there were many reports of a drop in human CO₂ emissions when covid 19 was in full swing. This was due to the lockdowns and the reduction in activity of industries, shipping, air flights and so on.  Below is the graph of carbon dioxide emissions produced by Maua Loa. We would expect a dip in the graph from about 2019. No such dip is evident. Carbon dioxide levels continued to rise at the same steady rate. The oceans were still emitting carbon dioxide as they had been doing for some time. 

Finally: There’s the question of whether you think carbon dioxide is causing climate change. It didn’t take me long to realise that CO₂ is not causing climate change. However, let’s humour the climate alarmist for a minute. Suppose it was causing climate change. If nearly all the carbon dioxide building up in the atmosphere at present is being emitted from the oceans what are climate alarmists going to do about it?  How do they plan to stop all undersea volcanic eruptions? 

Climate change will happen because of natural processes . We simply have to learn to adapt. That’s the key to survival. 

Ian Bradford, a science graduate, is a former teacher, lawyer, farmer and keen sportsman, who is writing a book about the fraud of anthropogenic climate change.