In scanning the climate news each week, I come upon interesting items I’d like to share. This week I found some alarming new studies about carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere and ocean.
Global CO2 emissions are accelerating, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In their analysis [PDF], the researchers highlight three main points:
- Today’s emissions are higher than even the worst-case scenario considered in the IPCC’s projections of climate change,
- Emissions are growing most quickly in developing countries, particularly China, but
- The developed world (which has 20 percent of the population) is responsible for 59 percent of today’s CO2 emissions, and 77 percent of emissions since the 1750s.
The oceans put a brake on global warming by removing half the extra CO2 humans add to the atmosphere every year, but that might soon change. A paper to be published in Science (released online via Science Express) found that:
- Higher winds, possibly caused by ozone depletion and global warming, are churning up water that contains dissolved CO2, which is then released to the atmosphere, and
- Over the last 25 years, the ability of the Southern Ocean to remove CO2 from the atmosphere has declined.
If you’d like to know more these articles, please let me know!
One Comment
Sir:
Oceans are a net producer of CO2 and to say other wise is absurd in any account. Man produces about 3% of the CO2 emitted each year, the other 97% is emitted by animals, bacteria, dieing vegetation, volcanoes and the biggest polluter of all, the oceans. Yes, developing countries like China do have growing emissions however they fall outside of the inequitable Kyoto Treaty, which by the way was signed under the Clinton/Gore administration who then failed to have the Treaty put forward to the senate to be ratified leaving it ineffective for the 3 remaining years of the administration. Another reason the developing countries have high emissions is because of low air pollution standards and the fact they attract investment (factories) from developed countries fleeing CO2 Cap and Trade schemes. The developed world does produce 75%+ of the world’s emissions and also fuels about 80% of the world’s economy. I have been reading about climate change from the perspective of both sides of the debate and when I read such absurdity like the Oceans remove man made CO2 well…… it doesn’t swing my vote but makes a skeptic of the greens logic and selective fact mining science. Here is to a healthy debate as scientific consensus is more or less an oxymoron.