More Knobs to Control Global Environment
TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
Research into material transport via rivers provides further evidence that a supernatural Designer has fashioned Earth to support life. One reason the planet does not undergo runaway heating is that calcium helps remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, thereby reducing the greenhouse effect. A team of European scientists has shown that the amount of suspended calcium is similar to dissolved calcium in rivers as they discharge into the ocean. However, the suspended calcium varies much more widely than dissolved calcium due to annual fluctuations in water levels. This means that there is both a baseline amount of calcium (dissolved) to assist in CO2 removal and a much more variable amount of calcium (suspended) to provide a stronger negative feedback to stabilize Earth’s temperature against greenhouse heating. Complex controls in the global carbon cycle would be expected in a biblical creation model positing that a supernatural Creator designed this life-support planet.
- Sigurdur R. Gislason, Eric H. Oelkers, and Arni Snorrason, “Role of River-Suspended Material in the Global Carbon Cycle,” Geology 34, no. 1 (2006): 49-52.
- https://geology.geoscienceworld.org/content/34/1/49.abstract
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