By Kenneth Richard on 17. December 2018
• CO2 emissions from termites are more than double human emissions from fossil fuels.
• Termite populations have been observed expanding rapidly in recent decades.
• CO2 emissions from soil is 9 times greater than human CO2 emissions.
• Deserts are shrinking as the Earth greens and soil area expands.
Venter et al., 2018 “Over the past three decades, 7.5 million km2 (55%) of non-forest biomes in sub-Saharan Africa underwent significant net gains in woody plant cover. This is more than triple the 2.2 million km2 (16%) significant decrease in woody plant cover, confirming local-scale studies indicating increases in WPE [woody plant encroachment] over the last century. … These results confirm global greening trends, thereby bringing into question widely held theories about declining terrestrial carbon balances and desert expansion.”
Munier et al., 2018 “On average, all vegetation types have experienced greening over the last two decades at rates ranging from 0.026 m2m−2yr−1 for winter crops to 0.042 m2m−2yr−1 for coniferous forests. Coniferous forests are mainly greening in temperate regions and show the largest area affected by high positive trends. By contrast, grasslands are greening at a moderate average rate, but since they cover almost half of the total vegetated area, the grassland area affected by high trend values is greater than for any other vegetation type but coniferous forests. … In the tropical zone, evergreen forests and grasslands are rapidly greening (see Table 4), which seems to be related to rising CO2 in the atmosphere [Zhu et al., 2016]. On the contrary, in high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere where coniferous forests are dominating, Zhu, Z. et al. [2016] suggested that changes in the vegetation dynamics are mainly driven by climate change.”
Brandt et al., 2017 “Here we used a passive microwave Earth observation data set to document two different trends in land area with woody cover for 1992–2011: 36% of the land area (6,870,000 km2) had an increase in woody cover largely in drylands, and 11% had a decrease (2,150,000 km2), mostly in humid zones. Increases in woody cover were associated with low population growth, and were driven by increases in CO2 in the humid zones and by increases in precipitation in drylands, whereas decreases in woody cover were associated with high population growth.”
Bastin et al., 2017 “We show that in 2015, 1327 million hectares of drylands had more than 10% tree-cover, and 1079 million hectares comprised forest. Our estimate is 40 to 47% higher than previous estimates, corresponding to 467 million hectares of forest that have never been reported before. This increases current estimates of global forest cover by at least 9%.”
Question
If termite populations and soil-terrain area have been rapidly
growing in recent decades, and these sources emit 2 and 9 times
more CO2 into the atmosphere than humans do via fossil fuel
combustion respectively, why is it assumed that an increase in
human CO2 emission is 100% responsible for the increase in
atmospheric CO2 concentration?
Posted in Emissions, Scepticism |
What are you trying to do? Start a war on termites and dirt>
Hubris! Plus the lack of knowledge of a very complex ecosystem and the conceit that it can be adjusted by man.
That about sums it all up, IMO.
In a previous comment, I have expressed astonishment as to why the physics of CO2 has met with rather little attention by skeptics – even though it appears to lend little support to a significant role of CO2 in temperature changes.
I am equally puzzled by the fact that the basic questions of how much CO2 emitted worldwide in a given period of time is absorbed and released again and how much of these stocks and flows can be ascribed to humans and how much to non-human natural processes, do not seem to represent a major area of concern with skeptics. Again, it appears that the alamrist position is not particularly solid.
Murry Salby has given an interesting lecture covering this issue – though, I must admit, I wish a more popular variant of his message were available.
https://youtu.be/rohF6K2avtY
The climate activists have effectively triumphed on this matter because they have successfully stanched the vast paleoclimate evidence (90,000 measurements from across the globe) that shows atmospheric CO2 concentrations naturally reaching 600 ppm, 700 ppm a few thousand years ago, and 425 ppm during the 1800s — values that undermine claims of the “unprecedentedness” of today’s values, which would cease to support an anthropogenic origin.
For more, see here…
https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/geosociety/article/view/11157/11208
…or here…
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d9d9/eb6e213a1fa8fec2c877685baa81817b15a5.pdf
…or here.
http://21sci-tech.com/2006_articles/IceCoreSprg97.pdf
By featuring graphs that persuasively show a CO2 hockey stick after the 19th century, the activists have successfully decommissioned debate…and skepticism.
Dr. Salby actually published an atmospheric physics textbook in 2012, Physics of the Atmosphere and Climate.
http://www.langtoninfo.com/web_content/9780521767187_frontmatter.pdf
“Together, emission from ocean and land sources (∼150 GtC/yr) is two orders of magnitude greater than CO2 emission from combustion of fossil fuel. These natural sources are offset by natural sinks, of comparable strength. However, because they are so much stronger, even a minor imbalance between natural sources and sinks can overshadow the anthropogenic component of CO2 emission.” pg. 546
Part of Salby’s presentation is addressing the censoring of Professor Harde for his 2017 work that relied on Salby and got his views into publication after Salby was shut down. Also see (https://edberry.com/blog/climate-physics/agw-hypothesis/my-poster-presentation-for-the-ams-annual-meeting-jan-8-2019/) for another view of the same analysis that falsifies several IPCC tenets.
As I reported to SebH HERE
Here’s some termites the UN-IPCC have not factored into their original calculations as they’ve only just been found.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/cp-4tm111318.php
As they say “4,000-year-old termite mounds found in Brazil are visible from space”
Is it not reasonable to think that these industrious little critters would be a little less industrious during cold periods (like during the LIA) and more productive during warm periods? And would this be true generally of all life on the planet during cooler/colder times? Of course during cool/cold periods more CO2 can be dissolved into the cooling oceans.
IMO the natural world has many more surprises up it’s sleeve, it is not human’s fault that CO2 levels have risen, as that tendency often happens quite naturally especially when the earth come out of a cold period. CO2 just like Arctic ice amounts varies considerably over climatic periods, humans do NOT govern (barely affect) the process natural events do.
Hey, don’t blame me. I’m doing my part to stem the termite tide. //:o)
Yonason 😊 😊
He,😊 hee… could you pop over to Brazil then Africa with your equipment as they both seem to have a bit of a problem with termites. 😀
Maybe the UN-IPCC, or the Mann himself, could sponsor you 😃 😄 ☺️ 😁 😀 😍
LOL, tom0mason.
Yeah, maybe I could finance a nice vacation that way?
Seriously, I’m just trying to keep them out of my house, and out of my garden. They love organic mulch and root vegetables, and are at least as fond of Jerusalem Artichokes as I am.
Ever since I found that product I haven’t been bothered. Only saw them one time in the last 10 years, and that was only after not replacing expired baits for about over 6 months.
What they do in Brazil or Africa on their own time is their business. After all, they have been an integral part of the environment for so long, I can’t imagine the harm that would be done if we were able to completely eradicate them. Probably a very bad idea, which of course would mean warmists and greenies might love it. But I just want to keep them in check very locally, so I guess I’m no fun, am I? 🙁
But it might be worth neglecting my garden for a while, if I could help put one over on those con artists – give them a taste of their own medicine.
A further study covered by the Independent in 1994
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/could-termites-be-the-worlds-terminators-a-humble-forest-insect-may-be-emitting-dangerous-amounts-of-1394135.html
“Termites Emit 2Xs More CO2 Than Humans”
Ridiculous! I’ve never seen a termite driving a car.
Well, Bubba, maybe their very chewsy about what they drive //;-o)
Do not know if this article is correct but one can not trust newspapers or university publication and in fact most articles in Journals these days.
A fact is that there are some 258 described plus some 90 undescribed of species of termites in Australia. There are also a number of species of animals that feed on termites. The Echidna which is one of the oldest animals ( egg laying with a pouch) prior to mammals. We have some around our house. We have at least 5 species of termites in our surrounds but only one dangerous so we need yearly inspection and if necessary control.
Our area is subtropical and the termites have been here for hundreds of million years.
Secondly, just downloaded an article by Jamali et al which checked emissions of various species in 4 area around Darwin both iside the nest(or mound) and outside. They found the emission of CO2 was 5 to 10 times that of CH4 (claimed to be an important greenhouse gas but that is false) and that the emission of CO2 outside was small and less than that in the breath of a human.
I suggest that this is another attempt by Greens to stir alarms about an insignificant issue in an attempt to force humans to something to aid their political agenda.
Is this the Jamali et al you were referring to?
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/88a2/e00a83d8c32f6503f4deee0f5a5e2c620e31.pdf?_ga=2.108031490.1249189028.1545121992-1063660284.1545121992
There’s supposed to be one from 2011, but I didn’t see it. This is newer anyway (2013), so probably more up to date.
Re: “the emission [by termites] of CO2 outside was small and less than that in the breath of a human.” That is a non sequitur. Furthermore, it is not quite correct.
On the other hand, the emission of CO2 inside termite mounds is in the order of CO2 concentrations that are equal to that in the breath of a human (about 40,000 ppm, see Figure 5, at the end of the report). Corrresponding CO2 emissions inside human dwellings are about 2,000 ppm, while CO2 emissions in the breath of termites appear to be totally unknown, although I would guess that they are substantially higher than 40,000 ppm.
Furthermore, if a comparison is made between outside CO2 emissions near termite mounds to CO2 concentrations in human breath, would it not stand to reason that a comparable comparison should be made between the emission by humans of CO2 outside human dwellings to the breath of a termite? That comparison would equally be a non sequitur, for which reason it stands to reason that perhaps neither of them should be made.
I would like to know whether, if Jamali et al. were to study the CO2 emissions of the Brazilian termites, how those and their emissions would measure up to the Australian ones they studied.
Good searching Yonason! Pity more can not put a few words into a search engine like Google and pull out a range of information which might show up the poor skills of some authors of articles and their even less skilled peer reviewers.
Just watched a Youtube video with an Australian physicist showing up the poor mathematics of people spending billions of dollars on black holes and gravitational waves (LIGO) which probably do not exist at least in the form described (eg escape velocity both zero and speed of light, zero radius and radius equivalent to speed of light, no mass and infinite temperature at point source etc).
Sounds like an interesting video. If you post the link, I’d like to take a look at it.
Here you are Yonason
Crothers, S.J., LIGO — Its Claims for Black Holes and Gravitational Waves | EU2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ev10ywLFq6E
THX – Will watch soon.
PS -I left a comment on your website to the article on pyramids. I see it’s still in moderation. Hope you enjoy the video on included on that.
More termites, more termite wars. I did not know termites were warriors too. the termite overshoot has happened, now termites move to invade new digs.
Nature at work in the termite world increases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, humans are blamed and then become the victims.
That’s the way it goes moving west.
Life is not fair.
“In lab experiments, “old soldiers went to the front line and blocked the nest opening against approaching predatory ants more often than young soldiers,” the Japan-based team reported.
“These results demonstrate that termite soldiers have age-based task allocation, by which ageing predisposes soldiers to switch to more dangerous tasks,” they added.
Old female soldiers were even more likely than males to become cannon fodder, the study reported.
“We also found that young soldiers were more biased toward choosing central nest defence as royal guards”—a much less risky deployment than defending the nest entrance.”
Termites at War
Long ago, in a termite mound far away…
The resistance must find a way to blow up the death mound by discovering fire and igniting the massive CH4 emissions that it produces. Maybe Al Gore can star as Luke, Obama as Lando and Michael Moore as Jabba. It could work.
And Michael Obama can be the costume designer.
You’re an evil genius, Steve.
https://preview.redd.it/2cp6wltl5ocy.jpg?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=f30804db040ef7e60644edd747c50b0a7acad09d
And leafcutter ants.
https://phys.org/news/2018-12-leafcutter-ant-colonies-overlooked-source.html