[Reader-list] Fwd: Carbon dioxide in Atmosphere

[Nagraj Adve]

Interesting posting Jeebesh. Not sure what it does to our idea of a good
life, point is whether it changes our good life itself. It's a question I've
been grappling with for a while: would the better off change their lifestyle
significantly upon reading item after item of extremely grim info on climate
change. There's limited evidence of that as yet in relation to the scale or
urgency of the problem.

In passing, I just hope that this year's high temperatures since February
are a random aberration, though I don't it is. And for that matter the
stalled monsoon. I've just got back from Ranchi (in fact from a meeting on
climate change of several organizations, forest peoples groups, fish
workers, coastal peoples organizations, NTUI, bunch of NGOs, etc) and the
dryness through the landscape was striking. In my village in south
Karnataka, where the rain has reached, it's raining too little and
intermittently.And since CO2 stays to significant level in teh air for
decades (centuries possibly), these changes are effectively irreversible.
And there's the 30 year lag of warming still to be felt. So we can only make
sure things don't get a damn lot worse.

Cheerfully,
Naga



On 22/06/2009, Jeebesh <jeebesh at sarai.net> wrote:
>
> What does this do to our ideas of good life?
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> > From: Ananth S <sananth99 at gmail.com>
> > Date: 21 June 2009 7:46:12 PM GMT+05:30
> > To: bemous2007 at gmail.com
> > Subject: Carbon dioxide in Atmosphere
> >
> > 2.1 Million-Year High Measured for Carbon Dioxide in Atmosphere
> > By Jeremy van Loon
> > http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aG5p2kBin538
> > June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere has
> > risen to its highest level in at least 2.1 million years, according
> > to a new investigation of the greenhouse gas’s role in ice ages over
> > the millennia.
> >
> > Researchers including Columbia University’s Baerbel Hoenisch drilled
> > into the ocean floor off the coast of Africa to remove shells of
> > ancient marine animals called foraminifera that contain climate
> > records, according to the study published today on Science’s Web
> > site. Previous evidence of CO2 concentrations found in columns of
> > Arctic ice go back just 800,000 years.
> >
> > Carbon dioxide, which traps heat close to earth, is the main
> > contributor to global warming, threatening to raise sea levels and
> > disrupt food production and water supplies, United Nations
> > scientists have said. The marine sediment indicated “stable” levels
> > of atmospheric CO2 at less than 250 molecules per million molecules
> > of air, compared with about 385 today.
> >
> > “What’s remarkable is how little CO2 concentration changed in the
> > past,” said Jerry McManus, a paleoclimatology professor at Columbia
> > who participated in the study. “What we’re seeing now is the same
> > magnitude of natural variations happening in only a few decades.”
> >
> > The CO2 concentration ranged between 181 and 297 parts per million
> > over the period studied. It may be necessary to go back as far as
> > 2.7 million years to find levels of CO2 similar to today’s, the
> > study concluded, without attributing reasons for previous surges.
> >
> > Carbon Spike
> >
> > If the world continues to burn coal and oil and cut down forests
> > that store carbon, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere may more than
> > double to 900 parts per million in the next century, the UN’s
> > Environment Programme Executive Director Achim Steiner has said.
> >
> > Negotiators at UN-sponsored talks are attempting to set limits on
> > CO2 emissions. Delegates are focused on restricting output of the
> > gas, which has grown 2 percent since industrialization in the 1800s,
> > to 450 parts per million and slowing the rise in average global
> > temperature to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over the next
> > century.
> >
> > “With unabated emissions, many trends in climate will likely
> > accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible
> > climatic shifts,” 10 universities said today in a report suggesting
> > that climate change was underestimated.
> >
> > The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007
> > blamed global warming on emissions of such gases and warned of
> > increased flooding and drought as temperatures continue to rise.
> > Greenhouse gases also include water vapor, methane and nitrous oxide.
> >
> > ‘Unprecedented’
> >
> > The study published in Science today “is the best existing record so
> > far that shows atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide,” said
> > Columbia’s McManus. “It strengthens the case that this is fairly
> > unprecedented” for an increase in CO2.
> >
> > Other evidence of greenhouse gas concentration has been discovered
> > in ice. Polar researchers reported last year in the journal Nature
> > that carbon dioxide was at an 800,000-year high, after studying
> > bubbles trapped in ice drilled from the Antarctic.
> >
> > Hoenisch and colleagues investigated the role of the carbon cycle in
> > climate change and concluded that CO2 was probably not responsible
> > for lengthening the time between major ice ages to 100,000 years
> > from 40,000, countering a supposition that massive ice sheets grew
> > and receded because of gradually decreasing levels of carbon dioxide.
> >
> > Even with the likelihood of the earth warming up in the coming
> > centuries, we’re headed for another ice age at some point thousands
> > of years in the future, said McManus.
> >
> > “The earth is moving into an increasingly glaciated state,” he said.
> > “It’s just that the intervals between ice ages, which we’re living
> > in now, have become longer and warmer.”
> >
>
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