nytimes.com Reports: Carbon Dioxide Level Passes Long-Feared Milestone

[Lady Freedom Returns]

In this 2 page online article, "The New York Times" looks at a dangerous milestone. The question now comes down to how long are the people in whole keep allowing those that say it (global warming) is not real, to keep up the dangerous ignoring of the problem.

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 report goes on to say...

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.

Read the full story at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/science/earth/carbon-dioxide-level-passes-long-feared-milestone.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&src=igw

[Politicalboi]

1. For the last 4 years we could have done our part

http://nutiva.com/articles/the-science-behind-carbon-dioxide-reduction-with-hemp/

Hopefully Hemp will one day be growing wild everywhere. Oh but it looks so much like Marijuana. What will the children think? I think to help their future, they will be fine with it.

[LeftInTX]

2. I wonder if the US ever be able to curtail CO2 emissions?

Texas has been fighting the EPA all the way, while spewing out more and more CO2. I think other red states are also fighting the EPA.

There are court cases, but it takes time. And I don't know where the Supreme Court stands in all of this. With the 5 cons seated, it may not side with the EPA.

Well, I could say a whole lot more......................

[flamingdem]

3. I think the Republicans are doing all they can to obstruct Obama's

EPA appointment, sigh.

[ellisonz]

9. They're submitting unprecedented amounts of questions in writing, which she's answering...

...and then claiming she's uncooperative!

http://news.yahoo.com/senate-republicans-block-confirmation-epa-nominee-131708967.html;_ylt=AlpGnWTV12wQkjjwjzHRNULQtDMD

[flamingdem]

20. How in the world can they get away with this

[mick063]

4. It is too late, the cat is out of the bag.

Corporate America seeks consumers. If the entire world is industrialized, the typical man will become 100% dependent on the current format of spewing CO2 into the atmosphere.

Forty years ago, Pedro drove his coffee beans to market on the back of a mule. Now he drives coffee beans to market in a truck.

We can't just give every American a car and a refrigerator. We must give every person on Earth a car and a refrigerator.

Of course the greenhouse gases are accelerating. Of course profit overrules our planet's future. Of course those that make the profit will do everything in their power to mitigate genuine effort to reduce those gases.

The runaway effect cannot be stopped. The outcome is certain. The planet will become very, very hot. The oceans will rise. The polar caps will cease to exist. Broad swaths of indiscriminate extinction will occur. Our current civilization will become historically infamous. Far in to the future, we will be despised by those that inherit this world.

[AverageJoe90]

11. Just one big problem: there CAN'T be a runaway effect on Earth.

I don't care where you got that information from, but that bit is plainly wrong for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the geological differences between Earth and Venus(the biggest one is vulcanism; many times that of Earth), and the fact that Venus's atmosphere is 96% Co2. That isn't happening on our planet. And we have enough actual problems to deal with as is.

[Junkdrawer]

18. Strawman

WHERE did mick063 refer to Venus?

[AverageJoe90]

23. He didn't need to, Junkdrawer. Because that is the supposed ultimate outcome in 99% of cases.

And even if he didn't quite mean "Venus", he is still wrong. Even during the PETM, there was no "runaway" temperature boosting; and frankly, if it truly had happened, none of us would be here today.....and there was fucking shitloads more methane than there is today; if it didn't happen then, it certainly won't happen now.

We have actual, valid issues to be concerned about with AGW. Runaway warming isn't, and never was, one of them(apologies to Jim Hansen but he was dead wrong on this one).

[Junkdrawer]

24. You put words into his mouth, then debated THOSE words. Strawman. n/t

[AverageJoe90]

25. Nice try, but no cigar.

If Mick himself would like to clear up the record, by all means, he could.
But as I said, even if he didn't mean a literal Venus scenario(even though that is what is usually implied, and you can't deny that.), it is still completely wrong for many reasons, one of which I've already made clear(the difference plate tectonics is another thing altogether).

I'm sorry if you have trouble with that. But you know what? It's just the facts.

[Junkdrawer]

19. I refuse to give up hope. I can't. I have a child....

Last edited Sun May 12, 2013, 12:24 PM - Edit history (1)

It's going to have to be the biggest polution-mitigation effort humans have ever done, but there's still hope.

And we will have to do some geoengineering. Sucks.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. USA, USA, USA!

It is days like this I am glad I don't have children

[Lady Freedom Returns]

6. A self kick.

This is , in my opinion, very important and needs to be kicked for more to read.

[RobertEarl]

7. Adapt

What can you plan on doing? Adapting.


Ever hear of methane hydrates? These are ice crystals full of methane deep under water. So deep they are frozen. Trillions of tons of hydrates on the planet.

What happens when the ocean warms and these ice crystals melt? Methane is released to the atmosphere.

What will methane do to the atmosphere?
Make it warm up even faster.

What happens when the atmosphere warms even faster?
The polar ice melts.

And when the polar ice melts and runs off into the ocean what will happen?

[AverageJoe90]

13. There is a methane problem, but.....

If there's one thing that makes it a little less hard to cope with, is the fact that there isn't nearly as many clathrates and such on Earth now as there was during the PETM period, not by a LOOONNNGG shot.....though I guess it doesn't work as well for most, as studies do show that permafrost may contribute as much as a full degree *F to climate change by 2100, and that's just for 2100; if the year 3000 passes by and temperatures are still above today's, that would be the main reason why.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. I read the whole damn article and not once did I find the examples that would get the attention

of an ordinary person. It was gloom and doom! Unsustainablity! etc. etc. But not once did it say something like, cancers will increase, liveable areas along the coast will cease to exist, more storm surges like N.J. and N.Y. will be seen in X, Y and Z.

If you want the attention and support of ordinary people, you need to explain how it will affect their lives.

[ellisonz]

10. People who don't understand what's happening are willfully ignorant.

Sandy should have been a massive wake up call for a lot of people, because God knows many ignored Katrina.

[Baitball Blogger]

14. It's not going to be enough.

Think of how they are ruled by fear. Those fears are specific, false, but specific when the right-wingers are trying to reach them. We have to be specific and accurate.

[ellisonz]

21. Are you suggesting we have to act right-wing in order to convince right-wingers to help us? n/t

[Baitball Blogger]

22. The gloom and doom is already written in the article. Assuming they think they'll

reach the masses with that approach, I'm recommending they get specific--but be accurate.

[Junkdrawer]

16. And there are pros who want to make SURE people don't understand the severity of the problem...

The deniers have lost the "it's not real at all" debate.

So now it's "Sure, it's a problem, just not a very BIG one".

BULL SHIT.

[AverageJoe90]

26. Maybe, but....

I can't help but notice, too, that there's also a smaller, yet still noticeable contingent of people whose main goal seems to be the polar opposite, by exaggerating climate change, as opposed to denying it altogether(believe it or not).

Cases in point? Here's a couple:

guymcpherson.com
http://www.apollo-gaia.org/
http://collapseofindustrialcivilization.com/

(TBH, of all of these three, McPherson appears to be the one guy who really does spout B.S. 24/7. But the other two aren't much better)

Neither of these two extremes deserves any credibility.

[AverageJoe90]

12. Not only that, but this "gloom-and-doom" kind of stuff actually gives ammo to the deniers, too.

Where do you think most of their non-statistical attempts at refutation come from? They just go to the fringes and try to make it look like that we ALL are totally nuts(and unfortunately, it's worked to an extent).

[Egalitarian Thug]

15. If only we had been warned...

We're pretty well fucked now. If we somehow magically stopped all greenhouse emissions today, climate change would continue to progress for decades.

Moving to the beach is probably not a great idea right now.

[librechik]

17. yup. So nothing we say here really matters

we're all going to be gone before we find out how it all ends.

[AverageJoe90]

27. Nah, we'll still be here....for better or for worse. n/t