#135: Condensation, Biotic Pumps, and Turning Back the Clock on Global Warming
How it connects to Foundational Ecosystems and turning back the dial on global warming
In #134: Dancing with Sunlight, the discussion centered on how forests orchestrate Earth’s energy flows—transforming sunlight into moisture cycles that stabilize regional climates. A key focus was condensation implosion: the process where water vapor condenses into liquid, releasing latent heat and triggering cascading energy redistribution. This phenomenon challenges the conventional greenhouse gas (GHG) forcing narrative, which often reduces ecosystems to passive components of the climate system.
Peter Bunyard, renowned for his groundbreaking work on the Amazon’s biotic pump, brought a transformative perspective to this narrative. His insights revealed forests as far more than carbon sinks or localized coolers. Instead, they are active drivers of atmospheric circulation, shaping global climate dynamics in profound ways.
Forests achieve this by releasing bioaerosols—organic particles that act as cloud condensation nuclei—while lifting moisture up to 15 km. These mechanisms amplify cloud formation, enhance precipitation, and power what Peter describes as the biotic pump: a system that creates low-pressure zones, drawing in moist air from oceans and redistributing it across continents.
Peter’s calculations highlight the sheer magnitude of these processes. The Amazon’s biotic pump, for example, drives airflow at average velocities of 10.5 m/s, contributing to as much as 80% of the cooling effect of incident sunlight in the region. These numbers underscore the urgent need to rethink forests’ roles—not as passive components of climate regulation but as dynamic, essential engines of atmospheric and energy balance.