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Carbon Dioxide Equilibrium
A study by Manoa Assistant Professor Richard Zeebe links the pre-human climate stability to connections between atmospheric carbon dioxide and the breakdown of minerals in the Earth’s crust. While the process occurs far too slowly to have halted the historical buildup of carbon dioxide from human sources, the finding gives scientists new insights into the complexities of the carbon cycle. The results of the joint study with Carnegie Institution was the cover story of the May journal Nature Geoscience.
Over hundreds of thousands of years the equilibrium between carbon dioxide input and removal was never more than one to two percent out of balance, a strong indication of a natural feedback system. This natural feedback acts as a thermostat, which is critical for the long-term stability of climate. During Earth’s history it has likely helped to prevent runaway greenhouse and icehouse conditions over time scales of millions to billions of years—a prerequisite for sustaining liquid water on Earth’s surface.
“Before anthropogenic emissions were added to the equation, the system was nicely balanced,” says Zeebe. “But this has changed. The average man-made increase in atmospheric CO2 from fossil fuel burning and deforestation over the past 200 years is about 14,000 times faster than the long-term average change over the past 610,000 years.”