Plankton Can Make Clouds To Block UV

NotWallaceStevens writes "This article on Science Daily describes how plankton can create clouds in response to seasonal variations in UV radiation from the sun by producing a chemical called dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP). This was a long term study based on data going back to the 1950s collected in the Sargasso Sea. One of the researches theorizes that the process could slow global warming."

Comments

News Flash!

[jgardn]

Earth, a planet that some say has maintained a rich biological diversity for hundreds of millions of years, has built in mechanisms to stabilize environmental conditions!

In a shocking new report, it was discovered that perhaps this global warming thing is a bunch of nonsense. The amount of damage we do to the atmosphere is nothing compared to what the variety of stellar material, volcanic eruptions, and biological processes have done in the past several million years. After each disturbance, the earth has maintained balance by compensating for disastrous change in the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Some of these adaptive processes were geological, but some were also biological.

It's almost as if life on earth was designed or grew to accustom themselves to earth's natural environment. In fact, the biological organisms have even changed the environment to make it more habitable for other biological organisms.

Just like bacteria in the environment maintain a balance by consuming extra resources, or limiting growth due to the absence of resources, the earth as a whole behaves in a similar way. When there is too much of something, it gets consumed at a greater rate. When there is not enough, it gets consumed at a slower rate. In the end, everything has a balance that is maintained within precise criteria.

In other news, free markets really work, and are the most effective way for distributing resources fairly due to a similar process called "supply" and "demand". Also, it was discovered that profits weren't evil, and that by allowing corporations to own land and profit therefrom, the land is taken better care of and more efficient than wilderness.