Subject: Does anyone know the name of this scientist?

From: [email-masked] (Judith Paulson)
Date: 17 Aug 1995 22:26:47 -0400

Does anyone know the name of this scientist or his theory...? Or where I 
can find additional information.... Or the name/episode of the television 
nature show that aired it? Thanks in advance!  

There was a nature show that had a description of an ice-age to ice-age 
theory (or earth cycle that takes thousands of years to enact). The 
scientist (works in Europe, but I can't remember his name) who proposed 
this theory was a botanist or meteorologist, if I am remembering correctly.

The theory ran something like (I knew I should have taped that show): a 
deciduous forest depletes its soil whereupon different trees (which likes 
the depleted ash-tree-soil) gradually take over the deciduous trees' until 
they deplete their soil; and so on, etc., until finally pine takes over... 
until the pine depletes its soil; whereupon the pine trees die off and 
leave scrub behind. As this process happens to more and more forests, less 
CO2 is made into oxygen and thus CO2 begins building up in the earth's 
atmosphere. Eventually, the CO2 build-up becomes significant enough to 
cause the greenhouse effect to kick-in and the climate begins warming up 
(causing droughts in some places, increased rain in other places). As the 
equator is where the higher temperatures are, there arises an increasingly 
disparity in temperatures between the hot equator and the colder poles. 
This temperature disparity causes more frequent storms and storms that are
more severe. Anyway, the increased lightening, earthquake activity, and 
global warming causes a higher frequency and severity of forest fires which

works to further increase the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, by further 
decreasing the number of trees. The increasing temperature disparity 
results in more severe winters which causes polar ice cap to build and 
grow. Eventually the ice ceases to melt in the spring and the polar caps 
begin to grow which eventually causes an ice age. What is unknown is the 
trigger mechanism that finally sets off the ice age or at what point, 
descent into an ice ceases to be reversible.  
  
If I'm remembering correctly, the cooling effect of the ice age coupled 
with all the ash from forests burning (from lightening, earthquakes, global

warming) and the ash from volcanos restores the balance and deciduous 
forests begin to grow again gradually pushing the ice cover back and 
gradually getting us back to an interglacial period.   
  
In other words, this scientist thought that a build up of CO2 was a natural

occurance in this ice-age to ice-age planetary cycle. And he said that what

we've done in the 20th century is to speed up this cycle with air 
pollution. The last thing in the show I remember seeing is the scientist 
spreading a specific kind of ash around the bases of trees in a forest in 
Europe somewhere in a controlled experiment...  

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_  
  
May your road rise to meet you  
May the wind be always at your back  
May the sun shine warm upon your face  
May the rain fall soft upon all that you plant  
And until we meet again,  
May your God cradle you in the palm of his hand...

---

From: [email-masked] (Willaim H. Reid)
Date: 20 Aug 1995 21:07:29 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]

> can find additional information.... Or the name/episode of the television 

Why not check with the people at UCAR/NCAR or CIESIN or the Global Change
Master Directory? All have www pages.