tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post7455357166124471054..comments2024-02-08T12:10:38.282+00:00Comments on Life of a Lab Rat: Microbes and Climate ChangeLab Rathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07962574174521597312noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post-27560237825815038032010-05-31T08:59:24.244+01:002010-05-31T08:59:24.244+01:00@lucas: Thing is, for methanogens etc. producing w...@lucas: Thing is, for methanogens etc. producing way too much carbon is beneficial, it's just the general surroundings of algae and cyanobacteria can control that to produce what is essentially the optimal gas conditions for Rubisco (or maybe Rubisco just evolved to specialise for those conditions or more likely a bit of both!)<br /><br />With the burning of fossil fuels and increase in farmed ruminants there's suddenly this massive influx of carbon and methane on a relatively very small time scale. I think the main thing about humanity is that it does things *quickly*. Events like bringing down mountains, cutting holes in rocks, and releasing tons of carbon would previously take evolutionary or geographical time-scales and are now being achieved incredibly fast.<br /><br />I think you linked to that diagram of the life-time of the earth in one hour (or one day). When you think of how much humanity has managed to do in that short period it seems quite spectacular.<br /><br />As for the 'solution' I have a hunch that it might come more from engineering; possibly because I know some engineers working on solution ideas and their a lot more realistic than microbiologists and more useful than climatologists. But more people working from different disciplines together would be the ideal solution.Lab Rathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07962574174521597312noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8341686541622227200.post-14073818479768839972010-05-30T18:50:37.172+01:002010-05-30T18:50:37.172+01:00Isn't the real difficulty to create such an en...Isn't the real difficulty to create such an environment, where producing way too much carbon is actually beneficial, as opposed to nature where bacteria are probably to produce 'just enough' for their own survival?<br /><br /><br />It would be such a great synthesis of science if synthetic biologists, microbiologists, climatologists etc. could tackle this problem.. It might be a bit utopian, but I think it is much more likely that the 'solution' comes from biology, rather than some of the ambitious geo-engineering approaches that have been proposed.Lucas Brouwershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15192035237302508309noreply@blogger.com