Replies to post #90760 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

hogsgeteaten -- now you've effervesced into high gibberish -- even as you keep on keeping on slinging your slop -- lmao

and re non-trivial effects of increased concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, beyond/leaving aside warming -- in direct parallel with the acidification of the oceans, there is this -- the acidification of us, specifically our blood -- not a good thing:

---

Health effects of increase in concentration of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
D. S. Robertson
Received 13 July 2005; revised accepted 15 January 2006
A great deal of effort is presently devoted to identification
and control of atmospheric pollutants. Carbon dioxide is
not only a gas which affects heat flow to and from the
atmosphere of the earth, but is also a serious pollutant in
its own right. The question therefore naturally arises as to
the likely physiological effects of the increasing carbon
dioxide content in the atmosphere. The concentration of
this gas in the atmosphere is not known to have risen
above 320 ppm over the last 40,000 years1. Another evidence
demonstrates this to be the case for the past 420,000
years2. Geological studies show that an increase in the
atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide above 320 ppm
last occurred 27 million years ago3. Unless evidence to
the contrary becomes available, these results prove that
the present rise in the atmospheric concentration of carbon
dioxide is not a natural phenomena caused by the gas being
released from volcanoes and other natural sources.
The cause is therefore likely to be human activities such
as fossil-fuel burning. With the present value for the concentration
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere at 373 ppm,
humans and other mammals are already in unknown territory
with regard to physiological effects of an atmosphere
with a much higher concentration of carbon dioxide.
Physiological effects of carbon dioxide
Although the safe working level of carbon dioxide is
presently set at 5000 ppm for an 8 h day 40 h working
week, no human ever endures such a level of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere for 24 h a day, 365 days a year,
for an entire lifetime nor has any human ever bred offspring
under these conditions. This includes workers in
breweries and the greenhouse industry, where the concentration
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere either commonly
reaches or is set at a maximum of 900 ppm. The
exposure in these cases is intermittent. The safe working
level or intermittent occupational level is therefore not
relevant in discussing the long-term effects of exposure to
elevated levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere,
which are above the present level but below the toxic level.
Recent examination of the standard medical explanation
of the effects of carbon dioxide on human metabolism has
demonstrated that the explanation requires revision,
principally on the grounds that carbonic acid is taken to
exist as a free acid in blood serum, which is an alkaline
fluid4. This work demonstrates that the level of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere at which humans can survive
indefinitely, is much lower than expected. The estimated
toxic level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere under
lifetime exposure is 426 ppm (Figure 1)4. At the present
rate of increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the
toxic limit will be attained in AD 2050 based on extrapolation
of the measured results from Mauna Loa5. The effects
of carbon dioxide are a reduction in the pH value of
blood serum leading to acidosis4. The minimum effects of
acidosis are restlessness and mild hypertension. As the
degree of acidosis increases, somnolence and confusion
follow. One of the effects of these changes is a reduced
desire to indulge in physical activity. Other metabolic effects
of acidosis have been reviewed and shown to be extensive6.
Embryonic or foetal abnormalities are also possible
as the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide affects maternal
metabolisms in succeeding generations.
[...]
Conclusion
The lowest value at which the atmospheric concentration
of carbon dioxide could be stabilized by reduction of additions
made by human activity (fossil fuel-burning, etc.)
is estimated16 as 550 ppm. To achieve this, severe limitations
are required on the latter activities. The most often
quoted16 desirable/attainable stable concentration is 750 ppm.
This concentration level is not related in any way to
health considerations and is above the estimated dangerous
level of 426 ppm. The value is also above the 600 ppm
level, which results in the ‘stuffy room’ conditions described
above. At the very least, 600 ppm of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere will be unpleasant and there will be no
readily available means of reversing the changes giving
rise to the above symptoms. Such a situation is unlikely
to be tolerable for a lifetime by humans (and other mammals
with the possible exception of seals) without deterioration
in general health along with serious curtailing of
physical activity presently taken as normal. The health effects
of low-level carbon dioxide poisoning are likely to
be first observed in the results of athletic events, where
maintenance of present performance records becomes difficult
and the establishment of improved performance records
never occur. It is possible that the performance of
some athletes in the 2003 World Games already shows
the predicted effects. It is also possible that the deaths in
France in 2003 were the result of high ambient temperatures
in buildings, with higher than ambient carbon dioxide
concentrations. It is likely that when the concentration of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reaches 426 ppm in less
than two generations from the present date, the health of
at least some sections of the world population will deteriorate,
including those of the developed nations. It is also
obvious that if the extremes of conditions described
above come to pass, then the biosphere and humankind
are seriously threatened.
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 90, NO. 12, 25 JUNE 2006 [pp. 1607-9]
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jun252006/1607