That aside, Lindzen and friends have missed an important point in this instance. Trump's preferred style of written communication is The Tweet. A series of long paragraphs is unlikely to garner the desired attention. Sometimes, it is necessary to communicate to people in their own language.
So let's try just that, in explaining to President Trump the importance of and the hazards associated with Earth's Carbon Cycle. Unlike Twitter though, this post reads in a user-friendly way, from top to bottom. So, without as much as a smidgen of FAKE NEWS, here we go:
@RealDonaldTrump 1/49
We want to tell you all about the Carbon Cycle. It helps make this planet great, so long as you don't MESS WITH IT.
@RealDonaldTrump 2/49
The Carbon Cycle is in two parts. One fast & one slow. They are different things because of the stuff they involve.
@RealDonaldTrump 3/49
The Fast Carbon Cycle involves plants. They feed on CO2 & make sugar. They keep it in their roots, stems and stuff.
@RealDonaldTrump 4/49
In summer they use the sugar for energy. They grow so much. In winter they lie dormant. So lazy. Should be fired.
@RealDonaldTrump 5/49
Lazy winter plants don't feed much so atmospheric CO2 goes up a bit. When they feed in summer, CO2 goes down a bit.
@RealDonaldTrump 6/49
Feeding pattern makes the seasonal wobble on CO2 graphs. Up & down, up & down, year in year out. So like a heartbeat.
@RealDonaldTrump 7/49
Some plants get eaten. Some burn in fires. When plants die they rot. Either way, carbon goes back to the atmosphere.
@RealDonaldTrump 8/49
But new plants come up every spring, start feeding on CO2. It lets them grow. They RETAKE what their ancestors lost.
@RealDonaldTrump 9/49
So the Fast Carbon Cycle is in balance. Look after those plants & it stays that way. Now for the Slow Carbon Cycle.
@RealDonaldTrump 10/49
The Slow Carbon Cycle works over millions of years. Normally. But sometimes things happen that mess it up.
@RealDonaldTrump 11/49
How it works: CO2 comes from volcanoes. A few 100 million tons every year. That's the main SOURCE. Apart from us.
@RealDonaldTrump 12/49
Did you know, Mr President, that CO2 used to be called “carbonic acid gas”? Carbonic acid is CO2 dissolved in water.
@RealDonaldTrump 13/49
In the air, CO2 dissolves in raindrops. They bring carbonic acid down to the ground. Supply is near-constant.
@RealDonaldTrump 14/49
Carbonic acid is WEAK but it can slowly attack most rocks and minerals. It's slow but it always wins and they LOSE.
@RealDonaldTrump 15/49
Limestone is a really big loser. Carbonic acid hits it so hard we end up with caves, stalactites & stuff.
Limestone caves, Nerja, southern Spain. Carbonic acid did all of this! Photo: author.
@RealDonaldTrump 16/49
Carbonic acid also attacks other rocks like basalt. Basalt is full of calcium & magnesium & it's really common.
@RealDonaldTrump 17/49
Carbonic acid attacks basalt everywhere, all the time. Happening on a massive scale. Process is called “weathering”.
@RealDonaldTrump 18/49
Weathering forms solutions of calcium & magnesium. End up in rivers & then in the sea. Weak but a constant supply.
@RealDonaldTrump 19/49
In the sea, calcium recombines with carbon & oxygen to make carbonate. Happens all on its own if chemistry's right.
@RealDonaldTrump 20/49
Or you get critters living in the sea that make their own carbonate. They make all those beautiful shells.
@RealDonaldTrump 21/49
Corals make carbonate homes to live in. These form wonderful coral reefs. They depend on it.
@RealDonaldTrump 22/49
Carbonate slowly turns into limestone. New limestone is always forming. Not such a loser after all! Clever!
Limestone, with critters that made their own shells from calcium carbonate, in the Jurassic Period, around 180 million years ago. Limestone is constantly forming in the world's seas. Photo: author.
@RealDonaldTrump 23/49
Leave all that limestone be & it stores that carbon. Stops it going any place else. Limestone is a carbon RESERVOIR.
@RealDonaldTrump 24/49
Trillions of tonnes of carbon are stored in limestone. But what about the other big store? The fossil fuels?
@RealDonaldTrump 25/49
I'm talking about all those dead plants. Some got buried & preserved. They are millions of years old. So ancient.
@RealDonaldTrump 26/49
These two are the Walmarts of carbon storage. Volcanoes let the stuff out. Limestone and fossil fuels LOCK IT UP.
@RealDonaldTrump 27/49
But what happens if the Slow Carbon Cycle gets messed with? That can work two ways. Geological record tells us this.
@RealDonaldTrump 28/49
If weathering goes crazy it uses too much CO2. You get global cooling. How about plants? They like CO2.
@RealDonaldTrump 29/49
Land plants only appeared a few hundred million years ago, when they evolved from the stuff that lived in water.
@RealDonaldTrump 30/49
Once they appeared, land-plants evolved fast. Then they invaded. Soon, Earth was covered in forests. So beautiful.
@RealDonaldTrump 31/49
The forests got to work on the plant-food in the air. They pulled down so much CO2. Its concentration fell and fell.
CO2-munchers: fossil ferns from the Carboniferous, over 300 million years ago. During the previous 100 million years, the land became afforested. Photo: author.
@RealDonaldTrump 32/49
That carbon was taken out of the Slow Carbon Cycle & put right into the Fast Carbon Cycle, like it changed sides.
@RealDonaldTrump 33/49
What happened next? It cooled. There was an ice-age. Same happened when first green plants showed up in the water.
@RealDonaldTrump 34/49
Same happened when significant oxygen first featured in Earth's atmosphere. That was 2.3 billion years ago.
@RealDonaldTrump 35/49
With oxygen in the air, methane came under attack. Methane is a strong greenhouse gas, but it got oxidised. It LOST.
@RealDonaldTrump 36/49
Each time these things happened there was cooling & ice-ages. So BAD. But what if you ADD more CO2 to the air?
@RealDonaldTrump 37/49
If you mess with the Slow Carbon Cycle the other way you get global warming. Some volcanoes can accomplish this.
@RealDonaldTrump 38/49
They must be really special volcanoes called Large Igneous Provinces. Not been one erupting for millions of years.
@RealDonaldTrump 39/49
Large Igneous Province eruptions are so big. Make Mt St Helens look like July 4th fireworks in a suburban back-yard.
The Siberian Traps Large Igneous Province, main suspect for the end Permian mass extinction (96% of species lost). It's just huge (scale-bar bottom left).
@RealDonaldTrump 40/49
Large Igneous Province eruptions last 1000s of years. Every century they can make 500-5,000 billion tonnes of CO2.
@RealDonaldTrump 41/49
They mess with the Slow Carbon Cycle big time. They overload it. Worse than most asteroids. They are killers.
@RealDonaldTrump 42/49
Large Igneous Provinces pollute. They wreck the climate. Caused some of the worst extinctions in Earth's history.
@RealDonaldTrump 43/49
Mr President, we're making over 3,000 billion tonnes of CO2 per century. We're acting like a Large Igneous Province.
@RealDonaldTrump 44/49
By burning oil, coal & gas at this rate, we are acting just like those special volcanoes. We really are. So sad!
@RealDonaldTrump 45/49
That's why CO2 graphs have trends going up & up & up. Last time we had an atmosphere like this was in the Pliocene.
@RealDonaldTrump 46/49
CO2 is a crazy gas. It multi-tasks. It's plant-food, a big greenhouse gas, it trashes rocks & it's an asphyxiant.
@RealDonaldTrump 47/49
The Slow Carbon Cycle should NOT be messed with. We are messing with it right now, big time. That's BIG news.
@RealDonaldTrump 48/49
Never before has a life-form messed with the Slow Carbon Cycle on purpose. Plants didn't do that. They just grow.
@RealDonaldTrump 49/49
Dear Mr President, plants don't get to make decisions. They're just dumb. But we CAN make decisions. Whaddya say?
And finally, Mr President, I'll just leave this here. Arctic sea-ice volume, Jan 1979 to Jan 2017.
Everywhere you look, Mr President, the indicators point the same way. Now, who will you listen to?
The scientists who have worked on this stuff for nearly two centuries - or those guys who made their fortunes digging up the fossil fuels?
Think carefully. We don't have a spare Earth if we mess this one up.
Regards from across the Pond.
