Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufm.b31h..01s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #B31H-01
Physics
[0400] Biogeosciences, [0414] Biogeosciences / Biogeochemical Cycles, Processes, And Modeling, [0485] Biogeosciences / Science Policy
Scientific paper
Many of today’s most pressing environmental problems have a basis in chemistry—that is human disruption of global biogeochemical cycles. Humans have enhanced the movement of C, N, P, and S in the global cycle of these elements, with widespread consequences such as climate change, hypoxia and acid rain. Recent attempts to calculate thresholds of global vulnerability ignore ample evidence that human impacts on the Earth’s chemical environment yield progressive degradation of the biosphere, especially its species diversity. Our collect global impact now exceeds natural processes of planetary remediation—clearly an unsustainable path. I will attempt to provide a framework to evaluate suggested attempts to mitigate current human impact on global biogeochemical cycles. Cap-and-trade systems are ideal for perturbations that involve a limited number of point sources that supplement a small background flux to the atmosphere, such as S. Better land management may be the most attractive way to mitigate human impacts to the Nitrogen cycle, where the potential for enhanced denitrification could respond to the order-of-magnitude of the current human perturbation. Impacts to the carbon cycle, seen through rising CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere, will require switching to energy that does not depend on fossil carbon.
No associations
LandOfFree
Planetary Biogeochemical Stewardship (Invited) does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Planetary Biogeochemical Stewardship (Invited), we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Planetary Biogeochemical Stewardship (Invited) will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1493842