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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Controversial new climate change results |
| 2009-11-10 |
| New data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of carbon dioxide having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now. This suggests that terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans have a much greater capacity to absorb CO2 than had been previously expected. The results run contrary to a significant body of recent research which expects that the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans to absorb CO2 should start to diminish as CO2 emissions increase, letting greenhouse gas levels skyrocket. Dr Wolfgang Knorr at the University of Bristol found that in fact the trend in the airborne fraction since 1850 has only been 0.7 ± 1.4% per decade, which is essentially zero. The strength of the new study, published online in Geophysical Research Letters, is that it rests solely on measurements and statistical data, including historical records extracted from Antarctic ice, and does not rely on computations with complex climate models. This work is extremely important for climate change policy, because emission targets to be negotiated at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen early next month have been based on projections that have a carbon free sink of already factored in. Some researchers have cautioned against this approach, pointing at evidence that suggests the sink has already started to decrease. So is this good news for climate negotiations in Copenhagen? "Not necessarily", says Knorr. "Like all studies of this kind, there are uncertainties in the data, so rather than relying on Nature to provide a free service, soaking up our waste carbon, we need to ascertain why the proportion being absorbed has not changed". Another result of the study is that emissions from deforestation might have been overestimated by between 18 and 75 per cent. This would agree with results published last week in Nature Geoscience by a team led by Guido van der Werf from VU University Amsterdam. They re-visited deforestation data and concluded that emissions have been overestimated by at least a factor of two. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #10 and the dinosaurs that would be so awesome lets have more greenhouse gases - now yes we can |
| Posted by: lord garth 2009-11-10 22:01 |
| #9 You think we have problems? Sheeeeiiit, man. Go back to the carboniferous period. Plants were growing like mad, laying down layers of future coal. O2 was up to 35%. CO2 way up. Breathing was easy. Supercharged O2. Electrical storms setting off righteous fires. The earth is a buffer. It resists great change. Otherwise all life would be dead. Mother MacCree! Climates changes throughout time. It is just that the shuck and jive people need another scam. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-11-10 18:42 |
| #8 DMFD goes strong to the basket! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-11-10 18:41 |
| #7 Bravo, DMFD, bravo! |
| Posted by: Steve White 2009-11-10 18:30 |
| #6 DMDF for the best today's snark! If ONLY we had some type of GREEN technology that would absorb carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Perhaps something solar powered that converted carbon dioxide and water to some harmless compound like say sugar and released oxygen. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2009-11-10 17:56 |
| #5 If ONLY we had some type of GREEN technology that would absorb carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Perhaps something solar powered that converted carbon dioxide and water to some harmless compound like say sugar and released oxygen. Perhaps, the brilliant Al Gore could invent it. Oh, well, I think that I shall never see it. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2009-11-10 17:39 |
| #4 .I thought we were all doomed! We've been doomed since the 80s. Didn't you read The Population Bomb and the Club of Rome reports? I ain't coming out 'til its safe! |
| Posted by: SteveS 2009-11-10 16:16 |
| #3 they've moved my desk four times already this year, and I used to be over by the window, and I could see the squirrels and they were married, but then, they switched from the swingline to the Boston stapler. Blah blah blah and on it goes. IOW for some change is as difficult as it for Milton W. |
| Posted by: GirlThursday 2009-11-10 16:10 |
| #2 but, but...I thought we were all doomed! Al Gore said so. Cripes, aren't the Seychelles almost under water by now? And what about those poor friggin polar bears, wasting away to nothing. I'm so confused. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2009-11-10 15:55 |
| #1 CO2 only stays in the atmosphere for a little more than 5 years. All the alarmist models assume it persists for 50 - 100 years. This discrepancy alone could account for the results of the study. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2009-11-10 15:46 |