Paul Bierman > Quotes

“Left to its own devices, the carbon dioxide we have emitted will slowly leave the atmosphere. Plants will take it up, as will soils. Much will dissolve in seawater. Minerals, as they slowly weather, will contribute elements that will combine with the carbon and thus isolate it from the atmosphere. This disappearing act will take many thousands to tens of thousands of years. Most people don’t appreciate the stubborn persistence of carbon dioxide and the slow rate at which natural processes transfer it from the atmosphere to the oceans, the biosphere, and the solid Earth. It’s the reason why what we do today matters for the next thousand generations.84”
― Paul Bierman, When the Ice Is Gone: What a Greenland Ice Core Reveals About Earth's Tumultuous History and Perilous Future