Page:On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Earth.pdf/7

Rh in the air can neither be conceived of as very great, nor as very little, in comparison with the quantity of carbon occurring in organisms. With regard to the great rapidity with which the transformation in organic nature proceeds, the disposable quantity of carbonic acid is not so excessive that changes caused by climatological or other reasons in the velocity and value of that transformation might not be able to cause displacements of the equilibrium.

“The following calculation is also very instructive for the appreciation of the relation between the quantity of carbonic acid in the air and the quantities that are transformed. The world's present production of coal reaches, in round numbers, 500 millions of tons per annum, or one ton per km. of the Earth's surface. Transformed into carbonic acid, this quantity would correspond to about a thousandth part of the carbonic acid in the atmosphere. It represents a layer of limestone of 0.003 millim. thickness over the whole globe, or 1.5 km.³ in cubic measure. This quantity of carbonic acid, which is supplied to the atmosphere chiefly by modern industry, may be regarded as completely compensating the quantity of carbonic acid that is consumed in the formation of limestone (or other mineral carbonates) by the weathering or decomposition of silicates. From the determination of the amounts of dissolved substances, especially carbonates, in a number of rivers in different countries and climates, and of the quantity of water flowing in these rivers, and of their drainage-surface compared with the land-surface of the globe, it is estimated that the quantities of dissolved carbonates that are supplied to the ocean in the course of a year reach at most the bulk of 3 km.³ As it is also proved that the rivers the drainage regions of which consist of silicates convey very unimportant quantities of carbonates compared with those that flow through limestone regions, it is permissible to draw the conclusion, which is also strengthened by other reasons, that only an insignificant part of these 3 km.³ of carbonates is formed directly by decomposition of silicates. In other words, only an unimportant part of this quantity of carbonate of lime can be derived from the process of weathering in a year. Even though the number given were, on account of inexact or uncertain assumptions, erroneous to the extent of fifty per cent. or more, the comparison instituted is of very great interest, as it proves that the most important of all the processes by means of which carbonic acid has been removed