The possible main cause of global warming could not be human activity, but an imbalance in the carbon dioxide content in the air and ocean. An unexpected version was voiced by the head of the Laboratory of Physics of Intergeospheric Processes of the Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Sergey Shalimov in an interview with Gazeta.Ru.
According to the scientist, due to the fact that temperature fluctuations on Earth were observed earlier – for example, during the last interglacial period (about 10 thousand years ago), the temperature on Earth was about two degrees Celsius higher than that which is now, although there was no civilization then was. In addition, the temperature from the end of the 19th century to the 1950s was distinguished by successive shorter periods of warming and cooling than thousands of years ago. He noted that for this reason one cannot say that global warming is caused only by human intervention.
“There is the hypothesis of Linus Pauling, who argued that there is an equilibrium between atmospheric and oceanic CO2 through the formation of calcium carbonate. If it is slightly shifted (for example, due to an increase in the temperature of the oceans), then CO2 in the atmosphere will increase. Here we still need to understand the reasons. In any case, this is definitely not an increase in CO2 from burning gas, oil and coal,” Shalimov is convinced. He explained that human activity can affect the balance of carbon dioxide in the ocean and in the air, but scientists have yet to understand how this balance shifts, why the greenhouse effect occurs, and what can be done about it.
