Human Greenhouse Gas Emissions Traced to Roman Times

LiveScience ^ | October 5, 2012 | Tia Ghose

[presidio9]

By burning wood, humans have been significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions as far back as the Roman Empire, researchers say.

The finding may lead scientists to rethink some aspects of climate change models, which assume humans weren't responsible for much greenhouse gas before the Industrial Revolution.

"It was believed that emissions started in 1850. We showed that humans already started to impact greenhouse effects much before," study co-author Célia Sapart of Utretcht University in the Netherlands said.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with 20 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, Sapart told LiveScience. Forest fires, wetlands and volcanic eruptions naturally release methane into the atmosphere. But human actions, such as raising cattle or burning fossil fuel, now account for more than half of the methane released.

To see how far back humans were producing significant amounts of methane, Sapart and her colleagues analyzed ice cores from Greenland. Tiny air bubbles trapped in the ice provide a perfect snapshot of the atmosphere thousands of years ago: The fraction of heavy and light carbon isotopes (atoms of the same element but with different numbers of neutrons) inside these air bubbles can not only reveal atmospheric levels of methane but tell researchers whether the gas came from forest fires, wetlands or other sources. [Giant Ice: Photos of Greenland's Glaciers]

In their Oct. 3 study detailed in the journal Nature, the researchers found that methane production was high around 100 B.C., during the heyday of the Roman Empire, and waned around A.D. 200 as the empire faltered. The methane

[elkfersupper]

Nature burns wood at a much faster and more destructive rate than humans could possibly do.

Hence the thrust to try and determine whether or not devastating fires were "human caused".

[Carry_Okie]

Consuming forests (albeit responsibly) increases growth over time and thus leaves more carbon in the soil than would a decadent forest.

These "researchers" cooked the numbers.

[TASMANIANRED]

How many human years does it take to equal the output of gasses and heat compared to the explosion of Vesuvius?

[FrankR]

Well just damn! I guess that’s what made the Empire fall...

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks presidio9. Romans, Han Dynasty were greenhouse gas emitters: study Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Bernard Marx]

They’ll grasp at any straw to keep the AGW fantasy alive.

[Flag_This]

How many BTU’s can you get out of an average liberal?

[bitterohiogunclinger]

“How many BTU’s can you get out of an average liberal?”

I suspect the net energy output would be negative. It takes a considerable flame to incinerate excrement, at least until it’s dried.

[Flag_This]

"I suspect the net energy output would be negative."

Well, we can try, can't we? For Science?

[Reily]

Well from Newtons 2nd law change in energy over time , Force = dE/dt =d(mv)/dt . Then the F, force has to be applied over a d, distance, W =Fd to get work.

No thats asking too much of a liberal!

[RobertClark]

Imagine how much was released while Nero was fiddling!

So, let me get this straight: It’s not Bush’s fault, it’s Caesar’s? Oy Vey!

[RobertClark]

I suspect the net energy output would be negative. It takes a considerable flame to incinerate excrement, at least until it’s dried.

True. Liberals make better fertilizer than fuel. A quick trip through a wood chipper and they're ready to spread.