Jon Ranson calculates Earth's carbon budget in a warmer world
Boreal Forest. Image Credit: a guy with a camera
“We know that right now, we cannot balance the carbon budget of the Earth.” – Jon Ranson
Jon Ranson of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center uses NASA’s Terra satellite to study changes in vegetation. Dr. Ranson spoke with EarthSky about Earth’s carbon cycle – which describes the way that carbon, a building block for life, moves from our planet’s atmosphere, land and oceans into living beings and back again. Disruptions to the carbon cycle are what’s causing global warming in this century.
Our thanks to NASA’s Terra Mission, helping us better understand and protect our home planet.
Just listened to Jon Ranson’s 8 minutes on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I’m not so sure about this global warming. Man has cut down the lungs of the earth; i.e. rain forests without replacing the trees to the extent that the last rain forests are having difficulty making oxygen and carbon gases in great enough quantities. Every time I hear or read an article on the subject, I wonder why we are not replacing those rain forests. I also think that global warming (if it’s happening)occurs in cycles. Right now where I live (Wisconsin)forecasters are saying we are going to have a worse winter than we had last year. I was dragging snow off the roof of my house with almost every snow storm time that went by.
Jon,
You are making the common mistake of confusing weather with climate. They are NOT the same thing. For a full explanation, read my blog post on Weather vs. Climate
Sorry. I meant to address my previous post to Mike, not Jon.