Doesn't it make sense that H2 would escape much faster than CO2 or any heavier compounds that are in the atmosphere? It seems intuitive that Jean's Escape time would predict this. I was trying to think of how it could be possible to speed up the escape time of CO2 and push it out of the atmosphere, but then I read this bit on wiki. Hydrodynamic Escape seems incredible! Some estimates indicate that nearly all carbon on Earth is contained in sedimentary rocks, with the atmospheric portion being approximately 1/250,000 of Earth's CO2 reservoir.[citation needed] If both of the reservoirs were released to the atmosphere, Earth's atmosphere would be even denser than Venus's atmosphere. Therefore, the dominant “loss” mechanism of Earth's atmosphere is not escape to space, but sequestration.
Good point, but I'd imagine that the low mixing ratio of H2 makes it difficult to actually encounter O2 or anything else that it can readily bond to. Trees, finding a way to convert it into other solids, and other novel ideas are the best bet. Whatever keeps it on the surface/in the ground. This won't solve our climate issues but the idea of vapor deposition of atmospheric carbon to create nanofibers is immensely cool.The thing about hydrogen is that it is very reactive and wants to bond with something, anything. And if there is a single oxygen atom and a single hydrogen atom, they will combine into a hydroxyl (OH-) and then bond to either nitrogen or carbon.
Actually, you can consider the low mixing ratio of H2 to be a result of reconciling several ideas we've been discussing here. H2 overwhelmingly escapes due to its low mass, and any H's that have formed OH- and bonded to N's or C's are heavier than the dominant species, N2, so those molecules essentially precipitate/sequester, via various mechanisms. And of course there's OH- bonding to H+ to yield water, and due to H2O still having a significant molecular dipole moment, it stays rather low in the atmosphere. The mixing ratio of H2 would be even lower if we weren't constantly receiving a more or less steady supply H+ ions from the solar wind. francopoli, am I thinking about this correctly? We are approaching a rather technical discussion :). So to sum it up, carbon is the devil, trees can kinda kill the devil, and mankind is winning the war against trees. Right now I'm imagining what type of market and climate conditions would have companies launching carbon sinks into space for a net profit via carbon credits. Wooooo, what a wild Friday night!!