Carbon Dioxide Level Passes Long-feared Milestone

[4588686]

Thanks, conservatives.  I find it amusing that the pro-life, pro-family crowd is apparently so ambivalent about totally flooping over their kids.  

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/science/earth/carbon-dioxide-level-passes-long-feared-milestone.html?hp&_r=0

 

 

The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported on Friday, reaching a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years.

 

Scientific monitors reported that the gas had reached an average daily level that surpassed 400 parts per million — just an odometer moment in one sense, but also a sobering reminder that decades of efforts to bring human-produced emissions under control are faltering.

The best available evidence suggests the amount of the gas in the air has not been this high for at least three million years, before humans evolved, and scientists believe the rise portends large changes in the climate and the level of the sea.

“It symbolizes that so far we have failed miserably in tackling this problem,” said Pieter P. Tans, who runs the monitoring program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that reported the new reading.

Ralph Keeling, who runs another monitoring program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, said a continuing rise could be catastrophic. “It means we are quickly losing the possibility of keeping the climate below what people thought were possibly tolerable thresholds,” he said.

The new measurement came from analyzers high atop Mauna Loa, the volcano on the big island of Hawaii that has long been ground zero for monitoring the worldwide carbon dioxide trend.

Devices there sample clean, crisp air that has blown thousands of miles across the Pacific Ocean, producing a record of rising carbon dioxide levels that has been closely tracked for half a century.

Carbon dioxide above 400 parts per million was first seen in the Arctic last year, and had also spiked above that level in hourly readings at Mauna Loa. But the average reading for an entire day surpassed that level at Mauna Loa for the first time in the 24 hours that ended at 8 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, according to data from both NOAA and Scripps.

Carbon dioxide rises and falls on a seasonal cycle and the level will dip below 400 this summer, as leaf growth in the Northern Hemisphere pulls about 10 billion tons of carbon out of the air. But experts say that will be a brief reprieve — the moment is approaching when no measurement of the ambient air anywhere on earth, in any season, will produce a reading below 400.

“It feels like the inevitable march toward disaster,” said Maureen E. Raymo, a Columbia University earth scientist.

From studying air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice, scientists know that going back 800,000 years, the carbon dioxide level oscillated in a tight band, from about 180 parts per million in the depths of ice ages, to about 280 during the warm periods between. The evidence shows that global temperatures and CO2 levels are tightly linked.

For the entire period of human civilization, roughly 8,000 years, the carbon dioxide level was relatively stable near that upper bound. But the burning of fossil fuels has caused a 41 percent increase in the heat-trapping gas since the Industrial Revolution, a mere geological instant, and scientists say the climate is beginning to react, though they expect far larger changes in the future.

Governments have been trying since 1992 to rein in emissions, but far from slowing, emissions are rising at an accelerating pace, thanks partly to rapid economic growth in developing countries. Scientists fear the level of the gas could triple or even quadruple before being brought under control.

Indirect measurements suggest that the last time the carbon dioxide level was this high was at least three million years ago, during an epoch called the Pliocene. Geological research shows that the climate then was far warmer than today, the world’s ice caps were smaller, and the sea level might have been as much as 60 or 80 feet higher.

Experts fear that humanity may be precipitating a return to such conditions — except this time, billions of people are in harm’s way.

“It takes a long time to melt ice, but we’re doing it,” Dr. Keeling said. “It’s scary.”

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[Thy Geekdom Come]

My meteorologist friends agree: global warming is bologna.

 

Global warming sandwich, anyone?

[Winchester]

So end protectionism.

[4588686]

My meteorologist friends agree: global warming is bologna.

 

Global warming sandwich, anyone?

 

 

You are not being a good parent.  You are being an irresponsible parent.  

 

And FYI, meteorology and climatology are two different fields.  

[Winchester]

One has to wonder if massive roads built by the Glorious Liberal/Conservative State Apparat had anything to do with this.

 

Oh, no. Gubbmint roads good. Interstate Good. Because Interstate Gubbmint.

 

It's impossible to be a statist and an environmentalist.

[4588686]

One has to wonder if massive roads built by the Glorious Liberal/Conservative State Apparat had anything to do with this.

 

Oh, no. Gubbmint roads good. Interstate Good. Because Interstate Gubbmint.

 

It's impossible to be a statist and an environmentalist.

 

 

There is no policy reason that you cannot have roads and mass transit and still have a responsible ecological policy. 

Edited May 10, 2013 by Hasan

[Thy Geekdom Come]

You are not being a good parent.  You are being an irresponsible parent.  

 

And FYI, meteorology and climatology are two different fields.  

 

You're right. What kind of parent serves bologna to his kids? It's all just chicken beaks and racoon butts.

 

I trust my meteorology friends to know enough about climatology to tell me if global warming is true, especially because they're both with the Air Force and are therefore subject to the indoctrination of this ridiculous excuse for an administration.

 

Some day, my kids will live in a world where temperatures rival a period a few hundred years ago, back when things got warmer but we didn't have sophisticated instruments to detect it, so we Chicken Littles waited a few hundred years to make such instruments and make wild assumptions about temporary climate patterns being permanent and man-made and call people bad parents because they don't approve of our opinions.

[Winchester]

There is no policy reason that you cannot have roads and mass transit and still have a responsible ecological policy. 

 

Of course. Assuming we have angels overseeing the concentrations of power.

 

I'm not sure about human driven climate change. I'm certain we have an effect. If we really want to reverse it, more power isn't the answer. Remove power. I'd end limited liability, first.

[arfink]

Thanks, conservatives.  I find it amusing that the pro-life, pro-family crowd is apparently so ambivalent about totally flooping over their kids.

 

I find it amusing that you assume all conservatives, especially prolife and pro-family ones, hate the environment. I also find it amusing that that you completely ignore the rapidly growing organic and agrarianism movement which is happening primarily with lovers of distributism, so-called conservatives.

[homeschoolmom]

Mmmm.... racoon butts.... :drool:

[4588686]

I find it amusing that you assume all conservatives, especially prolife and pro-family ones, hate the environment. I also find it amusing that that you completely ignore the rapidly growing organic and agrarianism movement which is happening primarily with lovers of distributism, so-called conservatives.

 

 

I don't think you hate the environment.  But I do know that on aggregate your voting habits do not reflect any sort of overriding concern for the long term impact of rising global temperatures than that global warming denial is endemic among conservatives.  That's just what the hard data has said consistently.  

[beatitude]

You are not being a good parent.  You are being an irresponsible parent.  

 

And FYI, meteorology and climatology are two different fields.  

 

All the global warming scepticism on Phatmass came as a shock to me when I joined, as I had never before encountered so many people in one place who either live in defiance of the scientific consensus ("Liberal scaremongering") or try to disprove it with the opinions of personal friends and the guy they met last night in the bar, who used to work for the weather channel.

 

I agree that it is irresponsible. It is also not in keeping with Catholic ethics. I'm visiting my parents at the moment, and it took me an hour to travel four miles from the railway station as the road was jammed. I could see that many of the cars had just one passenger. I know people who take the car on a ten-minute drive to the supermarket to pick up a carton of milk. Small things in and of themselves, but lazy and arguably the product of a culture of instant gratification - I can't take the bus, it takes me an extra fifteen minutes and I'd have to wait for it, and anyway I'd rather have my own car so I can listen to my music. This same attitude is behind irresponsible mining and manufacturing policies: want it now. Must have it now. And it's not REALLY causing any damage, that's all a fantasy! People are happy to believe that it's a fantasy because that way they still get to do whatever they want.

[4588686]

You're right. What kind of parent serves bologna to his kids? It's all just chicken beaks and racoon butts.

 

I trust my meteorology friends to know enough about climatology to tell me if global warming is true, especially because they're both with the Air Force and are therefore subject to the indoctrination of this ridiculous excuse for an administration.

 

Some day, my kids will live in a world where temperatures rival a period a few hundred years ago, back when things got warmer but we didn't have sophisticated instruments to detect it, so we Chicken Littles waited a few hundred years to make such instruments and make wild assumptions about temporary climate patterns being permanent and man-made and call people bad parents because they don't approve of our opinions.

 

 

Really?  What rank are your weathermen friends in the airforce?  What's their h-index?  How much research do they have under their belts?  What are their academic credentials?  I'm betting not a lot.  No, tracking weather patterns for planes does not give you any sort of substantive expertise.   The people who, unlike your friends, are actually qualified and have done actual climatological research are just about unanimous and the confirmatory evidence keeps rolling in.  So yes, you are being an irresponsible parent.  Sorry.  Sometime the truth hurts.  

[Winchester]

I don't think you hate the environment.  But I do know that on aggregate your voting habits do not reflect any sort of overridingconcern for the long term impact of rising global temperatures than desire to use government policy to affect the factors alleged to contribute or cause global warming, and that global warming denial is endemic among conservatives.  That's just what the hard data has said consistently.  

I fixed that. Even if I decided to completely believe in human driven climate change, I wouldn't think Nancy Pelosi or <insert alleged arch-conservative moron> should be using government power to set policy (which really translates to corporate crony policy, anyway). Again: Just remove government protections of massive companies. You wouldn't even have to remove the stupid EPA stuff, yet.

Edited May 10, 2013 by Winchester

[4588686]

All the global warming scepticism on Phatmass came as a shock to me when I joined, as I had never before encountered so many people in one place who either live in defiance of the scientific consensus ("Liberal scaremongering") or try to disprove it with the opinions of personal friends and the guy they met last night in the bar, who used to work for the weather channel.

 

I agree that it is irresponsible. It is also not in keeping with Catholic ethics. I'm visiting my parents at the moment, and it took me an hour to travel four miles from the railway station as the road was jammed. I could see that many of the cars had just one passenger. I know people who take the car on a ten-minute drive to the supermarket to pick up a carton of milk. Small things in and of themselves, but lazy and arguably the product of a culture of instant gratification - I can't take the bus, it takes me an extra fifteen minutes and I'd have to wait for it, and anyway I'd rather have my own car so I can listen to my music. This same attitude is behind irresponsible mining and manufacturing policies: want it now. Must have it now. And it's not REALLY causing any damage, that's all a fantasy! People are happy to believe that it's a fantasy because that way they still get to do whatever they want.

 

 

Which is ironic because the Catholic Church has institutionally has been light-years ahead of Obama or the mainstream democratic party on this issue.