Indeed, CO2 Is A Hot Button Issue for Many

Including the termites

I received an email from a Ph.D. geologist reader this morning in which he recalled reading — at least 25 years ago — another scientific paper gauging the relative scales of natural vs. man-made emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere. That paper, he remembered, indicated that termite emissions of CO2 alone dwarfed those derived from the human use of fossil fuels. The writer couldn’t recall exactly where he originally saw the article, but I carried out a Duck Duck Go search after receiving his email, and located a 1982 Science article entitled, “Termites: A Potentially Large Source of Atmospheric Methane, Carbon Dioxide, and Molecular Hydrogen”, that seems to fit the emailer’s recollection. People interested in reading the termite article will find a downloadable pdf copy of the piece at ResearchGate. The wheels of science grind slowly, but they do keep grinding (along with the termites).