Waiting For The 405

[hatrack]

EDIT

The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been measured at the observatory atop Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano since 1958, producing a record that shows not only the yearly maximum and minimum driven by the spring bloom and fall dieback of plants, but also the steady climb in CO2 levels every year.

The last few years have seen a spate of atmospheric CO2 milestones in the Mauna Loa record: The first measurement of CO2 above 400 parts per million (ppm) in May 2013, the first month entirely above 400 ppm in April of last year, and this year will likely see several months with an average above that level.

While 400 ppm is something of a symbolic threshold, as the amount of extra heat trapped by it versus 399 ppm is minimal, it serves to show how far carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from preindustrial levels of 280 ppm. Studies have estimated that CO2 levels on Earth haven’t been this high in at least 800,000 years. “The increase basically comes from the increase of coal and oil consumption,” Stephen Walker, a scientist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which keeps the Mauna Loa record, said. That increase in CO2 has led to a rise in the Earth’s average temperature of 1.6°F since the beginning of the 20th century. Depending on if and when emissions are curbed, another 3°F to 9°F of warming could be in store by the end of this century.

EDIT

Right now, that excess is to the tune of about an extra 2 ppm accumulating in the atmosphere every year. That means that the CO2 peak that comes each May is around 2 ppm higher than it was the year before, as shown in the graph above. This year, that peak is expected to be around 405 ppm. But not only is the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere going up every year, the amount by which it is doing so is accelerating; back in the 1950s, the yearly increase was only about 0.75 ppm per year. The yearly increase is concerning on its own, but the acceleration of that increase “is kind of even more scary,” Walker said.

The rate of that acceleration is a factor of human CO2 emissions, Walker said. Without efforts to reduce emissions and curb fossil fuel use, that acceleration will continue, he said. “And we’ve failed pretty miserably at that” effort, he added.

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http://www.climatecentral.org/news/co2-peak-trend-is-rising-18996

[daleanime]

1. kick, kick, kick.....

Wake up!

[LawnKorn]

2. 405