A synthesis by Antonio Donato Nobre, MCT – INPA Brazil

Sponsored by the Global Canopy Program and the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom
A powerful Perspective
Regulation of the Global Environment:

Presentation copyright © 2005 by MCT INPA/Antonio Donato Nobre

Animation credit NASA

A multidisciplinary stroll
through Earth evolution
Inharbors
a small aregion in the
heavenly outskirts
cradle where…
newborn baby-stars shine through
clouds of dust
a finger-like
structure of
gigantic
proportions…

A baby star ejects a revolving disk of dust from

which planets will form…

Billions of years and cosmic processes

of unimaginable grandeur were required since Image credit NASA
Huble Space Telescope
the beginning of the Universe for the formation of our Galaxy…
 billions of years later… voilá, our solar system

Earth
Sun

Saturn Uranus Neptune

Jupiter
Why is there such a variety of planets?
Venus

Mars

Why are rotations so different?

planets in relative scale

Could other planets sustain life?

Image credit NASA

 Diversity of Planets

Venus
Searing 400O C sauna

Clouds and rain of sulfuric acid

243 Days rotation

Weak magnetic field

Image credit NASA

 Diversity of Planets

Mars

Frigid Temperatures

Magnetic field almost null

Rarefied and un-breathable atmosphere

Image credit NASA

Diversity of Planets

Jupiter
Moons

Image credit NASA

 These
These bodies
bodies have
have metallic
water andnucleous
ice

Io Calisto

Europa Ganimedes Image credit NASA

 Io, where geology
is the “weather”

Thermal Image showing Active Volcanos Image credit NASA

 Europa, “iceball”
There seems not to exist a rule for the
formation of heavenly bodies in a
planetary system. Some of Earth siblings
are big and rocky, others are giant and
liquid, yet others are small and frozen.
Some have dense atmosphere, others lack
it completely. Some are too hot, almost
melting, others are too cold…

Image credit NASA

But only our mother planet is neither too
big nor too small, so that it can hold an
appropriately dense gaseous envelope;
only here liquid water is found at the
surface, indicating a narrow but
confortable band of variations in
temperatures;

But to hold life, there are other cosmic

issues to consider:
 What about other heavenly objects?

What protects Earth from

a continuous bombardment of meteorites?

An enormous swarm of moving

boulders and comets, remnants
from the formation of the
solar system, lay floating in
…some
outer of which can, from
orbits… time to time, destabilize
and plunge in our direction…
 Jupiter and the other giant planets in outer orbits function
as gravitational umbrellas, protecting Earth from comets and
other wayward cosmic boulders

Comet Shoemaker-Levy impact 16-22 July/1994

Image credit NASA
Huble Space Telescope
 Earth Moon System
Mass, distance and orbit of our Moon
Thus, are the guarantees
evolutionthe oflong
the right
term stability for the
planet, in the right distance
oblique and orbit
angle of Earth rotational axis
from the sun, with the right set of
neighboring planets attending necessary
This dynamic rotation
and sufficient conditions
stability for
has Earth to
vital importance
harbor
forlife?
the long term stability of
climate
Not quite yet…

Image credit NASA

As a result of
How
theissolar
Earthwind
protected
blasting its unprotected
from the
surface,
erosiveIoforces
loses matter
of the to
solar
space…
wind?

Now the planet should be the right and stable

body that will bear an atmosphere conducive to
the appearance and evolution of life …

But there is still a caveat…

Earth has a metallic nucleus. The inner core is solid,
the outer core is molten and spins faster than the
inner core…
Lines of Earth magnetic field,
computer simulation

… like an electric motor,

the differential spinning
in the nucleus generates a
big magnetic field that
encompasses the whole
planet…
 ... So, Earth’s magnetic field is very effective
in protecting against the harshness of the
solar wind...

Click mouse here => <= to Start / Stop animation

Animation credit NASA; ilustrates solar wind ejecting from the sun and being deflected by Earth magnetic field; ends with a view of Mars weak magnetic field
When the Solar wind hits the atmosphere on the poles, the
Aurora lights indicate violent collisions of sun borne particles
with atmospheric gases. Without the protection of the
magnetic field these collisions would progressively dissociate
gas molecules and eventually erode the atmosphere away from
the planet.
If one were to calculate the numeric probability that all of
these celestial factors would come together exactly right,
as they did, the probability of Earth existence resulting
from blind chance, multiplied by the probability of its
actual characteristics, would very likely produce an
infinitesimaly small number!
 ATMOSPHERE EVOLUTION

The slow process of crafting an unlikely gas envelope…

 In the beginning only geological and
geochemical forces determined the
Billions of years ago the
accumulation and modification of gases in
As happened sun’s
in output
Venus was
and weaker
Mars, so
these
the atmosphere.
Greenhousepassive
Earth the and
physical greenhouse
chemicalEarth kept
processes
95% CO2
led to the the oceans from
accumulation of a freezing
reductive
Venting from the Earth interior and
atmosphere,
accretion fromcomposed
meteorites mostly
were of
theCarbon
sources for the slowDioxide.
buildup of gases on
the planet’s surface
 the transparent atmosphere
But
keepsEarth
the has evolved
oceans froman oxidative
atmosphere,
boiling aswhere carbon
a result of a dioxide has been
removed and reduced
stronger sunto traces. This course
Present day Earth
0.037% CO2
of evolution was radically different from the
ones in Venus and Mars, which kept their
reducive atmospheres unaltered to the
present.
 THE EARTH PARADOX

Had Earth kept the CO2 atmosphere of

the beginning to the present, it would now
resemble Venus, with extreme heat on
the surface

Had Earth had the low CO2 atmosphere of

the present back in the beginning, it
would now resemble Jupiter’s moon
Europa, completely frozen
What process explain this severe atmospheric
change?

30% output increase

Greenhouse Earth Present day Earth

95% CO2 0.037% CO2
 Purely passive production of O2 in the
atmosphere does not explain the
magnitude of reduction in CO2
concentration and the volume of molecular
oxygen produced
MOLECULAR OXIGEN FORMATION BY WATER AND CO2 PHOTOLYSIS

Photochemical generation of molecular oxygen in

the atmosphere could explain an amount
equivalent to less than 1% of the present
atmospheric concentration (21%)
However, most Oxygen
produced over the ages
(96%) was consumed in
the oxidation of Iron
and Sulfur on the Earth
crust. Oxygen only
started to buildup in
the atmosphere when
the crust was
sufficiently “rusted”.

Internet material
 Therefore, passive photochemical
production of O2 would have had no
chance of producing an oxidative
atmosphere.

By estechiometric analogy, the

photochemical removal of CO2 could not
explain the great reduction of this gas
from 95% to 0.037%
 Some geologists believe that weathering
of continental rocks in a CO2 rich
atmosphere with the ensuing formation of
limestone would explain the removal of
CO2 from the atmosphere…
The Mineral Carbon Conveyor Belt

CaSiO3 + CO2  CaCO3 + SiO2

MgSiO3 + CO2  MgCO3 + SiO2

Internet material
 this geological hypothesis is based in the
accounting of huge volumes of limestone found
on the ocean floors and also on previously
flooded continental areas…
 Continental Drift

Internet material Present

65 My

248 My
Click mouse here => <= to Start / Stop animation

540 My

740 My

… it also relies on the dynamism of the

Earth’s crust that buries limestones and
ejects new weatherable rocks continuously
 Nonetheless, this geological hypothesis
does not explain why and how the
conveyor belt would not “saturate” (CO2
sunk equals CO2 erupted and degassed),
and why sibling planets like Venus and
Mars kept their atmospheres unaltered.

Also, limestone is only a part of the story;

vast deposits of organic carbon, like
coal, oil and gas, are unequivocally
connected to life…
How life would promote and control gas concentrations in the
atmosphere?

30% output increase

Greenhouse Earth Present day Earth

95% CO2 PHOTOSYNTHESIS 0.037% CO2
The emergence of photosynthesis in the
biosphere explains the progressive
consumption of atmospheric CO2 and
symmetrical release of vast amounts of
molecular oxygen
BLUEGREEN ALGI was the first organism to tap sunlight
through photosynthesis
Over the ages the
oxygen buildup in
the atmosphere is
consistent and
synchronized with
the evolution of
organisms in the
biosphere Internet material
 What is Photosynthesis?

How does it tap light energy?

Why Carbon and Oxygen are different

sides of the same coin?
 Origin of All Organic Matter

CO2 + H2O = CH2O + O2

Simple Explanation

inert gas [CO2] is transformed into sugar

...using for that nothing more than light and water

 Light Chlorophyl:
chemical solar panel

Light hitting the

Hydrogen
chlorophyl is
produces
remitted to the
electricity innext
its
phase Finally,
where extra
it will
other extremity,
beenergy
used from
to light
reduce
where water is then
CO is packed
and into
produce
dissociated into
2
ATP that
sugar; Oxygenwill isbe
Hydrogen and
remitted
released to
Oxygen the
into
H2 energize the
atmosphere;
H2O sugar production
O Atmosphere phase

ADP ATP
 Rubisco: assembly line

CO2

Internet material
Mg

Using energy and

Hydrogen produced in the
chlorophyl light phase, 6
CO2 molecules will now be protein
Rubisco
“glued” together by the
rubisco enzyme to form
one molecule of Glucose
 Biochemistry: builds live complexity with simple
building blocks

Internet material
Further on, glucose molecules
are glued together by
biochemical processes,
producing celulose, lignin,
wood... and then, with the
addition of other ingredients,
also proteins, lipids, vitamins...
and a great variety of organic
substances from which all
The most fantastic LEGO®! organisms are made...
 Organic substances have
evolutive intelligence

Internet material

Natural selection and

improved efficiency
make organic
substances able to
control processes
using stored
evolutive
information...

CRISTALIZED ARGININE
Organisms are carbon super-structures
of enormous complexity…
Internet material
Manipulates flows of matter and energy

Always seeks equilibrium

Acumulates information

Against disorder

Self regulated
 In hindsight, these inherent properties of life are
veryThere
similar is
to overwhelming
what can be seen in our planet
evidence thatas a
whole: many geological records point to a long lasting
Earth is stable “because” it has life.
stability of the Earth temperature, within very
Blind geological or geochemical
narrow limits of variation.
forces alone cannot explain the
Thisexquisite regulation
temperature stabilityveryfiable in our
has maintained liquid
planet’s
water on the surface, history.condition for life
an essential
itself.
Runaway climates on all other known
In many ways, the regulation of climate and the
planets are powerful corroborations
environment, as demonstrated by Earth history, is
of the uniqueness of Earth’s self
very similar to the complex and efficient regulation
regulation
of an organism capacity!
own internal environment...
 Paradise Earth?

“Every person, when made aware of the unbelievable work of

Nature required in the generation and maintenance of that
stability and comfort we enjoy today, will feel touched…
becoming reflexive and speechless about the gigantism and
complexity of life on Earth…”
 Aknowledgements

This synthesis work was funded by the Foreign and

Commonwealth Office of UK, under a grant to the
Global Canopy Prgram (www.globalcanopy.org/), and co-
sponsored by the National Institute for Amazonian
Research in Brazil. Stimuli, support and a critical review
from Andrew Mitchell from the Global Canopy Program
was keenly appreciated.
Most original material used in building of the slides
came from public domain sites like www.nasa.gov and
others. This synthesis could not have developed without
inspiration by Robert Harriss (National Center of
Atmospheric Research), Lynn Margulis (many of her
books), Jim Lovelock (the Gaya Theory), Victor
Gorshkov and Anastasia Makaraieva (Biotic Regulation
of the Environment) and a number of authors in the
scientific earth system and planetary science
literature. This work was also spurred by 20 years of
research in the magnificient Amazon rainforest, where
environmental regulation is self evident.

Socrates, thousands of years ago, first captured the

notion that humankind only could properly evaluate the
complexity of Earth if able to leave the planet and see
it from the outside.