CO₂ a curse or a blessing? E-Book

Johann Pichler

• Herausgeber: novum publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 243

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Climate change is undisputed, but how do we deal with carbon dioxide, which is considered the scapegoat for global warming? This book offers a critical look at CO₂ and its role in the current climate debate. It sheds light on the influence of agriculture and forestry, the importance of tree species selection in afforestation, the challenges of using biogas and hydrogen, and questions the role of fossil fuels. You will learn how forest fires and land use affect the climate and which methods can actually help reduce CO₂. It also shows why CO₂ should be seen not only as an environmental problem, but also as an essential component for life on Earth. A guide for anyone who wants to understand the complex relationship between CO₂ and our planet.

Leseprobe

Climate change

There have been many climatic periods since the Earth has existed. Each geological era had its own defining climate.

Plate tectonics, where the continents shifted billions of years ago and collided again, created huge mountain ranges such as the Alps and the Himalayas. The shifting of the plates is still causing devastating earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. We remember an earthquake off Sumatra at Christmas 2004, where the epicenter was in the sea and triggered a huge "tsunami". This tsunami triggered a storm surge that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. It took weeks for this storm surge to reach the coasts of the Indian Ocean in the west and nobody was prepared for it. That is why there were also many deaths in Sri Lanka.

There was a time when Austria was south of the equator. You can see this in a movie at the Natural History Museum. The migration of the continents created a different climate everywhere. Proof of this is the dispute over the areas around the North Pole, because every country wants to claim the oil and gas deposits there for itself.

As we know from our history lessons, Carthage was located in a fertile area south of Tunis in Roman times, but now it is a desert.

However, there is also groundwater at great depths in desert areas, which is used to irrigate the fields. I have read that large potato fields have been planted in Libya, which are irrigated with this groundwater in order to be able to supply Europe with early potatoes at any time.

There are many factors that make up the climate. These are mainly the average annual temperature and the distribution of precipitation. Furthermore, the altitude, the latitude, the shape of the terrain, such as southern or northern slope, and also the distance to the sea influence our climate.

There is a different climate all over the world. It's warmer in Sicily than in South Tyrol. People in Mongolia can't complain because it's not as warm as in India. People live everywhere and climate-adapted trees, plants and crops grow there.

We have all experienced and felt that our climate has changed in recent decades. There will hardly be anyone who is against a reduction in greenhouse gases and in favor of climate change.

The debate about this must take place without the influence of economic and political interests or pomposity. The population cannot be held hostage and the economy deprived of its foundations so that it is no longer competitive and jobs are lost.

On March 25 or 26, the ORF Teletext wrote that heating with pellets is more environmentally friendly than heating with firewood. This statement is so wrong and can only have been paid for by the pellets industry.

Hardwood firewood comes exclusively from maintenance measures, mainly from thinning and the strong branches, crooked or hollow trunks from logging. To produce pellets from it, it must first be shredded into small chips, which can then be pressed with an added binding agent (because hardwood has no resin content). Nobody knows how much CO₂ is emitted by this binding agent.

There is a biosphere park in the Vienna Woods, in whose core zone no wood may be removed. Even the wood from windthrows is left in the forest. When the wood rots, the same amount of CO₂ that was stored in it escapes. Burning the wood would produce the same amount of CO₂.

The facts should be honestly presented as to howemissionscan bereducedand how the unavoidable greenhouse gases can beremoved from the atmosphereon a reasonable basis.

Processes in nature

The climateis the average state of the atmosphere at a specific location or in a specific area over a longer period of time.

The terms 'climate' and 'weather' are often used interchangeably.

Byweatherwe mean what is happening outside today or tomorrow: is the sun shining, is it raining or is it stormy?

Climate refers to the entire weather over a longer period of time in a particular area.

Water vapor(clouds and fog) has the greatest influence on our weather.

Climate-determining factors

Climate elements aretemperature, precipitationandcloud cover.

The mainnatural climate factorsare latitude, topographical altitude and exposure (mountain ranges), distance from the sea and other large bodies of water, soil type and land cover.

Themain wind directionhas a significant influence on the climate. Here, in turn, thehigh and low pressure areasare decisive.

A distinction is made betweenfive major climate zones: Polar zone, subpolar zone, temperate zone, subtropics and tropics.

The most importantclimatic elementsare temperature, air pressure, wind, precipitation, cloud cover, visibility, sunshine duration and radiation (http://www.dwd.de).

Theclimate is determined from the long-term average values of the climate elements(temperature, precipitation, air pressure, wind, humidity, sunshine duration, cloud cover).

Due to thegreenhouse effect, the climate changes primarily as a result of the sun's rays hitting the earth. These are absorbed by natural gases and clouds and some of them are reflected back to the earth. This causes the atmosphere to warm up. The warmer air can hold more moisture and therefore dries out the soil through air movement.

There are climatic differences in the vegetation zones.

Tundra(permafrost), boreal (northern) coniferousforest/taiga, deciduous and mixed forest,steppe, hardwoods,desert,savannahandtropical rainforest.

The climate zones in Europe have a share in three large climate zones: thesubpolar zonewith boreal and tundra climatein the north, themid-latitudeswith temperate climate and thesubtropicsbordering to the south.

The influence of the Atlantic decreases from west to east, which is why the climate is said to be increasingly continental in character.

The amount of precipitation and temperatures are partly dependent on the shape of the terrain. With a southerly current, there can be enormous snowfall in the congested areas of the Alps in winter, while relatively high temperatures prevail north of the Alps due to the Föhn wind and the landscape is free of snow due to rain.

The greenhouse gases

Greenhouse gases are the gases in the earth's atmosphere that produce the so-called greenhouse effect.

Greenhouse gases arecompoundsof individual elements, mainlycarbon, oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen.

Most greenhouse gases can have a natural, but also an anthropogenic (man-made) origin.

The best-known greenhouse gases such ascarbon dioxide (CO₂) 407 ppm, methane (CH₄) 1800 ppbandnitrous oxide (N₂O) 320 ppb(in billionths of a part) are naturally present in smaller quantities in theatmosphere.

In addition to these trace gases, which are only found in very low concentrations in the atmosphere,water vapor(fog or clouds)is probably the most important greenhouse gas, accounting forup to 60 %.

In the case of man-made climate change, we cannot influence the water vapor (cloud cover).

The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is subject to constant fluctuations as a result of various processes (e.g. the natural alternation of cold and warm periods, volcanism, etc.). For the last 800,000 years, CO₂ concentrations between 180 and 300 ppm (parts per million) have been reconstructed from Arctic ice cores and sediment drillings.

The individual elements and their connections are described in separate chapters.

According to one study, one person produces 11 tons of greenhouse gases per year.With 9 billion people, that's around 100 billion tons.

Industry

19,4 %

15.14 million tons of greenhouse gases

Energy/electricity

25,9 %

20.20 million tons of greenhouse gases

Traffic

13,1 %

10.22 million tons of greenhouse gases

Building/heating

7,9 %

6.16 million tons of greenhouse gases

Waste and waste water

2,8 %

2.18 million tons of greenhouse gases

Agriculture

13,5 %

10.53 million tons of greenhouse gases

Forestry

17,4 %

13.57 million tons of greenhouse gases

According to this list, agriculture and forestry together would account for 30.9 % of total emissions, which has since been corrected downwards several times.

In Austria(according to Statistics Austria 2024), 69 million tons of greenhouse gases were emitted in 2023.

The level of emissions in agriculture and forestry is inexplicable to me. Why is deforestation in distant countries counted as emissions in Austria, even though the forest area is increasing every year?

This is also due to the emissions fromlivestock farming, farm manure (dung, slurry), the

Nitrogen fertilizer(necessary for chlorophyll and protein formation in the fruit).

Greenhouse gases are producedin agricultural soils during the rotting of the tilled-in green manure.

These are completelynatural processesthat are necessary to grow healthy plants thatcanextract CO₂ from the atmosphere via chlorophyll and photosynthesis andproduce foodfor us.

If you want to cite the low proportion of fuel used for processing, I could still understand that.

Question for Chat-GPT: How many motorcycles are there in Austria and how much CO₂ do they emit?

Total for all motorcycles in Austria:a motorcycle consumes an average of 5 liters of petrol per 100 km, which is 200 liters per motorcycle per year. That is 464 kg CO₂ x 550,000 motorcycles equals 255,000 tons per year.

1 liter of petrol has an emission of 2.32 kg CO₂. 1 liter of diesel of 2.64 kg CO₂.

It is also not mentioned,

how many greenhouse gases are produced during composting, in sewage treatment plants, in biogas plants, where methane - CH₄, nitrous oxide - N₂O and carbon dioxide - CO₂ are produced.

how much methane is produced in the moors.

how much CO₂ is produced during the fermentation of wine and must.

Austria accounts for 0.22% (approx. ¼ percent) of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Removal of greenhouse gases from the air

No one will deny that we need to reduce CO₂ emissions or remove it from the atmosphere.

I wanted more precise data and usedChatGPTto find out more about the "artificial intelligence".

I received the following message:

CO₂sequestrationthrough agriculture

This would result in a deficit of 7.8 million tons for 2023, with emissions of 69 million tons.

When asked whether photosynthesis and sequestration are the same terms, the answer was yes, but sequestration means final storage.

I replied that this was a sleight of hand and received the following answer:

Realistic assessment: The calculation of sequestration and the consideration of all CO₂ flows is necessary in order to develop realistic and feasible measures.

Without this comprehensive view, the challenges could be underestimated and ineffective or inadequate measures taken.

I understand this to mean that you invent a complicated word in order to achieve amore negative value.

The forest with its growth (annual growth of 30 million cubic meters) contributes approx. 30 million tons and agriculture with its products and greenery, according to Chat-GPT, approx. 31.2 million tons.

In total, only 7.8 million tonscouldbe saved. This data is from 2023 and the climate protection measures already implemented have reduced emissions from 78 million tons in 2019 to around 69 million tons. These are the latest data from Statistics Austria that I found.

It would be interesting to know how much greenhouse gases are brought to us by wind and storms with the Sahara dust.

It might also be worth mentioning how much CO₂ has reached us from the forest fires in the Mediterranean countries.

I don't assume that CO₂ was transported to us from the fires in Canada last year. It was once shown on ORF ZIB and said that the fires in Canada were so huge and caused as many greenhouse gases as Austria emits in 15 years.

How much CO₂ is caused by the war in Ukraine and Israel? CO₂ is certainly also released into the air during the production of weapons and ammunition.

I think the list could go on and on.

Basic knowledge

In order to have a say in the climate debate, we need a certain amount of basic knowledge to understand the science and the so-called "experts". They throw around technical terms and quantities so that we have to believe the "self-proclaimed scientists" because we can't follow the quantities.

As I was affected by the weather (cold and rain) fromm my job, I was interested in these statements andI followed them up. In doing so, I came across many inconsistencies. These made me even more curious to better understand certain claims and to be able to distinguish truth from falsehood.

The terms"ppm"and"ppb"are most frequently used for pollutant quantities.

However, these are only increases in percentages and per thousand.

You only have to visualize these mathematical terms.

I have tried to illustrate these terms and their meaning in a few examples.

Mathematical:

0,01

1 hundredth part

1 %

Percent

0,001

1 thousandth part

1‰

Per mille

0,000001

1 millionth part

1 ppm

Parts per million

0,000000001

1 billionth part

1 ppb

Parts per trillion

(American) billion

In money:

1 €

1 %

from

100 €

of one hundred euros

1 €

1 ‰

from

1.000 €

of thousand Euro

1 €

1 ppm

from

1,000.000 €

of one million euros

1 €

1 ppb

from

1.000,000.000 €

of one billion euros

Composition of the air near the ground

A study by Prof. Dr. Christian-Dietrich Schönwiese, head of climate research at the Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main, has described the composition of the elements in the air near the ground in numerous publications without taking water vapor into account.

In 2008, ZAMAG Vienna attempted to explain climate change on the basis of this study. At that time, the (carbon dioxide content) - CO₂ - in the air was stated to be382 ppm, which according to other publications had increased to407 ppmby 2018.

How to visualize the parts of the elements

In the following table I have tried to compile a list of the elements according to Prof. Dr. Schönwiesein:

I was able to obtain the data from the Internet https://www.zobodat.at ' pdf ' Umwelt-SchrReihe...März 2022 and Wikipedia and have compiled parts of it in the following table:

The following sizes and values are given in the table:

Percentages -

ppb

(billionths of a part)

Specific weight of the gas in descending order

Proportion in kilograms (kg) per m³ of air,

Amount of the element in kg contained in 2 million m³ of air (1 ha times 200 m height)

Amount of air

in

m³

, which is required

for 1 kg of the element.

In an area of 1 hectare (10,000 m²) and a height of 200 meters, 2 million m³ of air contains the following quantities of gases:

The greenhouse gases:

The noble gases:

1 953 000.00 kg Nitrogen

1.87 kg helium

598 690.00 kg Oxygen

30.54 kg Neon

1 609.00 kg carbon dioxide - CO₂

33 325.12 kg Argon

2.60 kg methane

8.55 kg Krypton

1.27 kg nitrous oxide

1.06 kg xenon

0.10 kg hydrogen

The noble gases do not combine with other elements under normal conditions.

The elements that are important asgreenhouse gases are specifically the heaviestand alwayspush close to the ground. This is most noticeable when you are hiking in the mountains and feel that you are getting less air when you breathe. Oxygen is specifically heavier and sinks to lower altitudes.

CO₂ is one of the most harmful greenhouse gases and, along with nitrous oxide - N₂O - is the heaviest. Oxygen and nitrogen are almost equally heavy and are also found near the ground, in our living environment.

Methane - CH₄ - is a gas that is very harmful to the climate and is one of the lightest specific gases.

A claim that 1 kilo of methane (CH₄) is 28 times more harmful than 1 kilo of CO₂ is a popular scenario in the climate debate.

A catch question with children was always: which is heavier, 1 kilo of goose feathers or 1 kilo of gold?

You can tell the difference when you drop them on your toes.

1 kiloof an element iscontainedin the followingm³ of airandliquefiesatminus degrees C°:

Nitrogen

1,02 m³

- 196 °C

Oxygen

3,34 m³

- 183 °C

CO₂

1 242,00 m³

- 56 °C

Methane

7 748 334,00 m³

- 156 °C

Nitrous oxide

1 579 878,00 m³

-88 °C

Hydrogen

20 228 992,00 m³

-252 °C

Ammonium

(NH₄)

- 33 °C

In nature,oxygenin the air is necessary for breathing andnitrogenonly in compounds as fertilizer and for the formation of vital proteins. All plants need CO₂ for photosynthesis so that they can grow and serve as food for all living creatures.

I recently spoke to biologist Karin Kaiblinger (my daughter's friend) about CO₂.

She spontaneously said:"CO₂ is the gas of life."

Hydrogenis the lightest gas and is of great importance to us humans in combination with oxygen to form water. Hydrogen compounds with carbon to form methane and some others to form acids are just as important for us.

The other gases listed by Prof. Dr. Schönwiese, ranked according to their specific weight :.

Xenon, krypton, neon and helium are noble gases and do not form compounds with other elements.

Man-made interventions in nature, some of which have an impact on our climate, are:

Deforestation through clearing

In Europe

With the colonization of Central Europe, the population needed pasture and arable land. The sparse ore deposits were also exploited, mainly iron, but also nickel and copper. In someareas, a lot of charcoal was needed for salt production and therefore a lot of wood was felled in the mountains. Wood was also originally the only heating material because coal was not yet known. In the 17th century, firewood was brought as far as Vienna by rafting.

In times of plague and war, whole areas were depopulated and the forest area increased again. In England, Scotland and Ireland, large areas were cleared in the Middle Ages in order to gain pasture land for the flocks of sheep. English fabrics made from sheep's wool were in great demand on the continentand brought in good profits. In Scotland, known as the Highlands, the sheep grazed all the good grasses and the heather was able to proliferate.

The humus layer was washed away by the rainfall and collected in hollows. Over the centuries, this material became peat, which was used as heating material. This peat gives the whisky its smoky taste, making it world-famous.

Today, the Highlands, which cover thousands of hectares, are almost uninhabited and it is difficult to establish grass, shrub or tree vegetation on the rocky ground with a raw humus layer. After the First World War, the swampy hollows were reforested with Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) on the advice of Canadian soldiers. The seed came from British Columbia.

In Ireland, due to the sharp increase in population, the land was needed for pasture and arable land. In the 17th century, a famine broke out due to potato blight, which cost many people their lives. A large emigration movement to America then began. It was not until after the Second World War that the low-yielding land in Ireland was reforested.

Russia - Siberia

In Russia, the former Soviet Union, many areas were cleared to meet the planned target and the timber was mostly exported to earn foreign currency. This deforestation also took place on a large scale in Siberia. In 1979, I was with a tour group near Irkutsk, where the apple trees were in bloom on June 11 and the grain fields were perhaps 5 cm high. We were toldthat this was a special variety of wheat. However, cool and wet summers very often lead to failed harvests. Lake Baikal begins to freeze over in mid-September.

I have heard that some of these areas are being reforested. Experimental reforestation is also being carried out with wood species from the Himalayas, Canada and Alaska. I took a handful of Baikal cedar seeds with me and grew them in pots in a greenhouse in the forest garden. However, only a few germinated and the plants were only about 8 cm high after a few years. The trees grow very slowly and need at least twice as many years to reach the same strength as here. The Siberian larch, which has very narrow growth rings and is highly sought after and very expensive as sawn timber, is very well known.

North America

With the discovery of America, groups from densely populated European countries, initially from Ireland and England, later also from Germany, Switzerland and Austria, who were persecuted because of their religion, came to America. Here they found plenty of pasture and arable land, which was first settled, mainly up to the Mississippi. No significant clearances were made here, as the drought meant that there was at most a shrub forest and the land was used for grazing.

North America, where the coastal region in the east was forested and very sparsely populated by the "indigenous population", was taken over by France and England.

In order to gain arable and pasture land, suitable areas were cleared to produce enough food to survive on the agricultural land.

"Western North America was colonized from Asia, China, Russia and Japan. In Oregon and especially in Portland there was a majority Russian population until the 19th century. We were told this on a 1987 field trip to BC, Washington, Oregon and California, in the Douglas fir area.

From the 17th century onwards, people from various regions of Europe immigrated to the English and French colonies in North America. They often sought protection from political persecution and freedom to practice their religion."

The discovery of gold in California led to a "gold rush", which made the journey easier for many emigrants thanks to the construction of the railroad over the Roky Mountains. Areas suitable for agriculture were cleared to feed the arriving people. Many also came to find valuable minerals.

South America

In South America,expeditions were launched by the Spanish in search of precious metals, mainly gold, which was initially taken from the Incas I, but also other valuable ores.

Brazil

There is currently a big debate in the media about deforestation and the burning of the rainforest. In 2013, I took part in a trip to Brazil because I was interested in the topic of the rainforest. As our tour group only consisted of 2 people (my partner and I), we had more time and were able to visit other places and learn a lot about the history and development of this country from the tour guide.

Roots - Dark line on the trunk indicates the water level in the rainy season. Roots increase the stability of the tree.

The darker line on the trunk still shows the water level from the rainy season.

The Spanish had found nothing of value in the coastal region of Brazil and it was therefore of no interest to them. The small country of Portugal took over this region in the 16th century.

Map of Brazil

Map of Brazil - size comparison with Austria

Brazil: Area 8,516,000 km²

Austria: Area 83,878 km²

Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world and

is 101 times the size of Austria.

The king divided the land into regions and awarded them to young noblemen. After a few years, most of them gave up and returned to Europe.

In the Amazon rainforest, a type of wood (Paubrasilia echinata) was found from which a particularly beautiful red dye could be extracted. At the time, it was called brazilwood, which then gave the country its name.

We saw something similar in the state of "Minas Gerais", where many valuable ores were found in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Charcoal was needed tosmelt these ores. For this reason, large areas of forest were felled. Reforestation was not common 400 years ago and was not done for cost reasons.

As there were no coal deposits in Brazil at that time, which were located at a favorable distance, charcoal was used to smelt the ores. As far as we know now, Brazil has almost no coal deposits.

This is why the nearby forests were cut down and charcoal was extracted from them. The demand for charcoal must have been enormous and was brought from great distances.

It was also common in Europe for ores to be smelted using charcoal in the beginning.

Today, there is no longer any forest in the large area around "Oro Preto", the former capital and center of ore extraction.

The deforested, arable land was used for food production, the mountainous areas remained bare and the soil was often washed away. Only a few small hollows have been reforested with eucalyptus.

In the 18th century, it was discovered that there were trees in the rainforest from whose sap rubber could be extracted, the so-called rubber trees. At the confluence of the Rio Solimões (European Amazon) and Rio Negro, the city of Manaus, the center of the rubber trade, emerged.

From Manaus onwards, the river is officially called the Amazon. It has a width of several kilometers and a depth of 70 meters. This is why ocean-going vessels can navigate the Amazon up to Manaus, some 2200 km from the Atlantic.

Manaus is a city of millions and there are also numerous factories. For example, it is home to the largest Honda factory, where most motorcycles are produced. We saw an ocean-going vessel in the harbor that was being loaded with motorcycles.

In the 19th century, this city already had 1.5 million inhabitants and there were many millionaires who had sumptuous villas built. The world-famous opera house still bears witness to this wealth today. Manaus is the capital of the state of Amazonas.

It was forbidden to export the seeds of this rubber tree on pain of death. However, Englishmen managed to obtain these seeds via Peru. They set up plantations in Malaysia and Indochina and were thus able to increase production and bring the product to market more cheaply. During a tour of Cambodia and Vietnam in 2018, we still saw such plantations in Vietnam. The natural rubber, which is still used for some purposes and fetches a good price, is extracted using the same method as the black pine resin in our country.

It was only with the production of these rubber goods from petroleum products that rubber extraction from the rainforest began to decline in the 19th century. Today, Manaus has around 2 million inhabitants and is an industrial city.

Many businesses have settled here because labor was relatively cheap. With the exception of the city, transportation is mainly by motorboat on the water.

On a round trip in Brazil, we had plenty of time in Salvador de Bahia and took a cab inland to Sao Felix.

On this trip we traveled, I guess maybe, 160 km through a grassy steppe, where sugar caneplantations used to be until about 150 years ago. Now there are still scattered sugar cane plants and a few bushes in the fields. There are no more settlements or houses in this area. We also drove past two ruins of sugar factories. Our guide told us that since the sugar beet was bred in Europe, the cultivation of sugar cane has no longer been profitable.

The farms have been abandoned and the workers have moved away. The land has lain fallow for many decades, even though it would be fertile.

In Sao Felix we visited a Dannemann cigar factory, where special cigars are still rolled by hand and are very expensive (1 piece 26,- $).

We were offered to sponsor one tree per person, which was planted for us. For several years, we received an annual email with a photo of this tree. Perhaps the former rainforest could be reforested with such sponsorships.

As many people were needed for this work in the plantations and ore extraction, the first slaves were brought to Brazil around 1530. We were told that they were initially recruited in Africa. Families with many children usually sold strong boys and girls.

These families needed the money to survive in Africa. But very soon, around 1550, the slave trade was practiced by criminals who simply captured the young men and sold them in Brazil and much later in North America.