"What link does Astrobiology have to Physics? Is there a link between Astrobiology and fluids? nuclear? Forces? or Motion?"
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Question
Greenhouse gasses? Is it true that 98 percent of carbon dioxide emissions comes from natural processes, like volcanoes, methane trapped in oceans, etc. And is it true that humans make up for only 2% of CO2 Emissions??
No; human activity is the dominant source of CO2 emissions. There has been a major increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and the concentration is now rising at more than 1% per year. It has been estimated that 99% of current emissions are from human activity and 1% from volcanic eruptions. A good source of information is the Wikipedia article "Carbon Dioxide in the Earth's Atmosphere." As noted there, last year (2007) the CO2 concentration in Earth's atmosphere was about 0.0384% by volume, or 384 ppm. This is 100 ppm (35%) above the 1832 ice core levels of 284 ppm. That increase of 35% can be attributed to human activity (since the rate of volcanic release has not changed over the past 200 years). You can find more details of the way the measurements are made (almost 50 years from Mauna Loa in Hawaii, a site that samples the unpolluted atmosphere of the mid-Pacific) at (http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/trends/co2/sio-mlo.htm).
David Morrison NAI Senior Scientist David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
August 26, 2008
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