Our Environment

OUR Environment, the Earth

Thirteen billion years ago, or so the story goes, there was a "big bang" (theory). Nine billion years later our Universe and Solar system formed from the debris. That means that 4 billion years ago our "3rd rock from the sun" existed. It really was a hot rock with poisonous gases.

Somehow a life form came to exist in that environment. For most of that 4 billion years these small life forms struggled, living and dying, day after day. They slowly modified the environment as their waste materials built up and supported new forms of life and eventually these life forms evolved into more complex creatures.

These creatures continued to modify their environment. The hot poisonous gases began to change and formed a blanket of air over the planet that started a cooling process. Even more complex life forms began to evolve and further modified the environment and it began to stabilize. Over several 100 million years the planet evolved to the point where it could support large areas of plants and huge animals, dinosaurs, that in turn existed for many more millions of years.

A major environmental change wiped out the large dinosaurs and allowed the smaller creatures to evolve and take over the planet. We are the descendants of one of those smaller creatures.

Up until a few hundred years ago the planet supported us and all the other creatures. It was a self-sustaining, closed environmental system. Today it is still a closed environmental system, but its ability to be self-sustaining is now in question.

Why? Because we, over the past few hundred years, have been changing the environment without awareness and without understanding what we are doing.

One of the ways to get a handle on the state of the environment is to get the "Big" picture. Currently satellites are being used to collect data about forests and other significant features on the planet.

These features can be defined in terms of sources (outputs) and sinks (intakes) of various gases and vapours. It is obvious that carbon dioxide (CO2), oxygen (O2) and water vapour are three items that should be studied in detail. They are involved in the life of all plants and animals on the planet and have a significant impact on the environment.

Scientists are in the early stages of this environmental study, apparent by the fact that scientists measuring the CO2 have yet to account for a significant "sink" of this gas. It's going somewhere, but they're not sure where.

Looking to confirm or find the following information

How much oxygen does a hectare of forest produce?
How much carbon dioxide does a hectare of forest absorb?
What are the sources of oxygen on the planet?
What are the sources of carbon dioxide on the planet?
What are the sources of water vapour on the planet?
What are the sinks of water vapour on the planet?
The world's oceans produce 20% of world's oxygen. Is this still true?
Brazilian rain forests produce 20% of world's oxygen. Is this still true?
There are approximately 6 billion (6,000,000,000) people on the earth.
The following numbers are approximate. Can they be confirmed?
- 60,000,000,000,000 Liters of air breathed by humans in 24 hrs.
- 3,000,000,000,000 Liters of O2 consumed in 24 hrs. by humans
- 2,400,000,000,000 Liters of CO2 given off in 24 hrs. by humans