In the past I had wondered whether the rise in CO2 levels was the cause of warming or the effect. Warming temperatures can impact weather patterns. Drought has a negative impact on plant life. Warmer/hot weather increases the fire risk. What happens when foliage is wilted or burned? The plant has lost its ability to turn CO2 to O2. CO2 levels rise. Warming waters can also have a negative impact on sea life. Coral bleaching is an example.

So lets take a look at the Vostok data. I am including two images. One is the image as is from:

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/BorealMigration/Images/vostok_co2_temp_rt.gif

The other is that same image but with a copy of the temperature plot pasted on top of the CO2 plot. I'll post them now for you to look at then I'll comment on something unusual in the overlay.

Here is the overlay.

While the text looks funny the tick marks on the bar at the bottom line up. The data lines up from top to bottom and left to right. The greenish looking line represents CO2 levels. The yellowish line represents temperatures. In most cases the CO2 and temperature levels ride upwards together. In some cases like 125,000 years ago and 325,000 years ago it looks as if MAYBE the temperature rise is a few years ahead of the CO2 rise. Hard to say for sure. What however is VERY clear is that the temperature drops are paced well ahead of the CO2 drops. In the first few years of the drop the lines are close together and its hard to really see who is leading. But as the years move on the gap becomes very clear. The temperatures are falling well in advance of the CO2 levels.

If the theory were correct that rising CO2 levels were causing the warming then it would not be possible for the temperatures to drop sharply well in advance of the CO2 drop. Unless of course it was that the CO2 level changes were a result of temperature changes and not a cause.

Why would you have the two going up together and the CO2 falling after? Well the warm/heat and fire will cause immediate damage to the vegetation and sea life. Death doesn't correct itself overnight. You can lose a crop overnight but it will not regrow overnight. As temperatures correct themselves the plant life is able to regenerate and bring down CO2 levels.

The CO2 rise in the last 100 years is still part of the warming that has been going on for quite some time. The CO2 levels may be overstated a bit because of man made pollution but you will find that temperatures just as they have in the past will begin to plunge. A number of years later the ecosystem will correct itself and just as it has in the past the CO2 levels will come down.

a nagging question i have whenever i look at these charts is

what is the cause of the CO2 drop offs?


if we know how CO2 is reabsorbed, the link that CO2 is the product of cycles/global warming instead of the cause would be clearer


almost like a stock chart, the drops are steeper than the climb ups. what could cause the CO2 drop offs to be so large and sudden (relatively speaking). I doubt its trees or the ocean gobbling up the CO2 suddenly

What about CO2 being trapped in ice? Or perhaps the death of CO2 producing creatures?

super storm baby

I remember reading speculation changes in ocean temperature increased and decreased CO2 output of the oceans.

Thank's Indy, great stuff.

yeah, when oceans warm, the release CO2, when they get colder, the absorb it.

also, lots of CO2 and or other so called greenhouse gases are contained under the ice up north like in permafrost. when it melts, it releases more CO2.