Rise in Gases Unmatched by a History in Ancient Ice

[midnight armadillo]

Rise in Gases Unmatched by a History in Ancient Ice
By ANDREW C. REVKIN

Shafts of ancient ice pulled from Antarctica's frozen depths show that for at least 650,000 years three important heat-trapping greenhouse gases never reached recent atmospheric levels caused by human activities, scientists are reporting today.

The measured gases were carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Concentrations have risen over the last several centuries at a pace far beyond that seen before humans began intensively clearing forests and burning coal, oil and other fossil fuels.

The sampling and analysis were done by the European Program for Ice Coring in Antarctica, and the results are being published today in the journal Science.

Ok, I am now thinking that CO2 sequestration ideas are no longer nuts.

[Crunchy Frog]

1. Maybe this planet will end up going back to the Carboniferous era.

That could be kind of cool. Most of the world under water, no ice, even the Antarctic would be subtropical. Maybe we'll even evolve gigantic dragonflies and huge amphibians again.

Well, I guess we're about to find out how drastically changing the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere over the space of a few decades will really affect this planet. And all of the hugely funded propaganda campaigns aren't going to make a damn bit of difference.

It's going to be quit a ride ahead for planet Earth.

[Boomer]

2. It's the change in direction

Did you catch the recent documentary about the Little Ice Age that hit Europe in the 1300s? One of the better quotes about how climate shift wreaks havoc compared the drop in temperature to a fall off a cliff:

"It's not the fall that kills you; it's the change in direction."

As the documentary ably illustrated, it's not whether you end up hotter or colder that is the problem. It's the fact that everyone is adapted -- agriculturally, financially, socially and psychologically -- to a particular range of temperature and climate conditions. When those conditions change, the adaptations we've developed no longer work, and re-tooling an entire culture to a new weather pattern is not easily done.

The result is widespread crop failures, famine, social unrest. No reason to think that we're going to do it any differently this time around.

[Odin2005]

8. Not to nitpick, but...

I think your mixing up the Coal Age with the Mesozoic Greenhouse. :)

The climate during the Carboniferous was simlar to now, an "icehouse" world with glacial-interglacial cycles. The common image of the coal swamps only holds in areas that were in the tropics in those times, the coal being formed when rising sea levels caused by the retreat of ice sheets flooding coastal forests, covering the dead plant material with sediment.

[Crunchy Frog]

10. No problem at all

I appreciate the information. I'm no specialist, but I try to read and learn whatever I can, though I have long way to go obviously.:)

Which geological period was the really hot one, or was there more than one?

[amandabeech]

3. Link? n/t

[meow mix]

4. some legs on this one...

plenty to share =)

cant beat realclimate i love it.
http://www.realclimate.org/
its featured on top.

or..
http://www.climateark.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=48626
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/earth_sciences/report-52200.html
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2005/2005-11-25-04.asp

[Dogmudgeon]

5. "Arrgh!" (C. Brown)

I have been working under the assumption that the previous high CO2 level since the Mesozoic ended was about 450 ppm. It's about 395 ppm now. Obviously, another assumption of mine is in error.

As for methane and nitrous oxide, I didn't keep track of the numbers, since they are harder to measure and tend not to be published as widely. Along the same lines, the volunteers who stayed in Biosphere 2 were all thought to have suffered permanent damage due to high levels of nitrous oxide. It's not a lot of fun at low, but chronic, levels of exposure.

The sad truth is that CO2 sequestration ideas are untested, and most scientists, even those who have proposed them, have little confidence in whether they will work. There are a few optimists, but not many. In addition, methane is the greenhouse gas that is increasing the fastest. The enormous frozen bogs of Canada, Northern Europe, and Siberia are all melting, becoming biologically active, and both CO2 and methane (CH4) are being produced in enormous amounts. Human production of carbon pollutants is probably a distant second now, although it was probably our doing that provided the initial "spark" to this ecology-wide metabolic wildfire.

Needless to say, this isn't good news by any means. The Earth is slowly turning into a massive sewer of our own making.

--p!

[aztc]

6. er, not slowly...

Not to be combative, but the point is that this is happening rapidly, not slowly. :(

[Dogmudgeon]

7. When you're right, you're right

And you're right.

I was speaking somewhat poetically. Or I possibly just had a minor brain seizure. All that N₂O, y'know.

Our situation is indeed dire, on many fronts. A good sense of humor is essential, but only to make the probability of premature death easier to cope with.

Climate change could destroy us. Pollution could destroy us. Sudden breaks in any of several key resources -- such as petroleum -- could destroy us. And, since sewers are excellent places for pathogens to grow and evolve, disease could destroy us. The biblical mythos of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was not too far from our modern truth.

There is also a secondary set of problems; survival may well require us to make choices that are unpleasant, painful, and/or have disastrous side-effects. It is difficult to communicate just how imperiled we may be and how unfamthomable the problems are.

I still believe we have a chance; I refuse to give in to despair. But the cards are stacked against us, and we're in the absurd situation of being the dealer. It makes me laugh.

Sometimes.

--p!

[Odin2005]

9. I really don't like being a defeatist...

...I do hope we invent some kind of climate modification to fix this shit. :scared: