[Reader-list] 20,000 times the long term rate

[Nagraj Adve]

When I first began following global warming four years ago, articles
would refer to carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere as being 379
parts per million (ppm). Some weeks back we reached 390 ppm.

The long term natural rate over the past several million years has
been about one part per million every 10,000 years or so on average,
in and out. We are now pumping CO2 in the atmosphere at over 2 ppm a
year, or about 20,000 times the long term rate. This is despite the
fact that much of what we pump gets absorbed by the oceans, where 90%
of the excess (heat) energy is going.

We can't say we weren't warned. "Human beings are now carrying out a
large scale geophysical experiment of a kind that could not have
happened in the past nor be reproduced in the future," said scientists
Roger Revelle and Hans Suess in 1957.

I just got back from villages in north and east Gujarat where most
people were sceptical that humans had the power to alter nature. I'm
just intrigued by how folks react to climate change. Unfortunately
there's far too little discussion about this on this list, but those
of you interested could email me directly so we can spare those not
interested.
Naga