More Co2 = less brains? Where is the arguementation?

[Jeroen Schaap]

In article <5dt3i0$t3m at salmon.maths.tcd.ie>,
   red at maths.tcd.ie (Ricardo Segurado) wrote:
:
[]
: This point will bring us way off subject, but plants
:would find it hard to photosynthesise with an even modest
:(5%) rise in atmospheric CO2. I can't recall the exact
:details, but it is a fact. (some plant biochemist please
:help me out here...) I'd say a 3000% rise would be
:fairly catastrophic: to all life.
: (not that it's going to happen..:)

My .02 cents: 
Plants LOVE high CO2. In greenhouses, actual %CO2 is around a few percents. They 
grow faster than. Maybe 5% is overkill, i don't know. Anyway, they really HATE 
acidic environment. Reads, high CO2 causes the next reaction to shift toward 
right:

CO2 + 2.H2O <-- --> HCO3- +  H3O+

with 
pH = -log [H3O+] + pKa(H2O). (I just feel like a teacher this very moment |-<)

Again, reads, higher atmospheric CO2 causes higher H3O+, causing actually lower 
pH or more acidic environment. Plants cannot stand acid and die. 

Simple argumentation, no biochemical background needed. Common highschool 
knowledge.

If I'm wrong, please flame. (Flameshields on, or not. Who cares anyway 
;)) Otherwise, don't flame. And please at last provide me with the slicest clue 
why high CO2 would cause brain mass to decrease. And furthermore, give me some 
results. I haven't heard anything about the source of the apparent correlation 
(!!!!!!!!!!!!!, read NOT cause-effect relationship) CO2 and brain mass. 

Yet, even if CO2 would reduce brain mass, so what? Would that reduce abilities 
of mankind, like the potential to learn how to score high on ambivalent tests 
like IQ-tests? (Potential for three more threads ;))

Jeroen

A man conducting a gee-whizz science show with fifty thousand dollars' worth of
Frankenstein equipment is not doing anything scientific if he knows beforehand
what the results of his efforts are going to be. A motorcycle mechanic, on the
other hand, who honks the horn to see if the battery works is informally
conducting a true scientific experiment.

							Robert M. Pirsig

== J Schaap =======================================================
         Faculty of Medicine, Leiden University
phone:   (0)71-5276763
e-mail:  SCHAAP at rullf2.MedFac.LeidenUniv.nl