Thursday, May 25, 2006

Grim news on global warming.

With the CEI dutifully telling us that carbon dioxide is natural because plants breath it in, CSIRO scientist Paul Fraser's findings that plants are just not inhaling anymore will be most unwelcome for them. I recently blogged about a presentation he was about to deliver on the latest results of testing at the Cape Grim meteorological station in Tasmania at a climate meeting in Sydney in the middle of the month :::[2005 record growth in atmospheric carbon dioxide].

I just wanted to catch up with the findings: Source :::[The Age]
  • levels of carbon dioxide - believed to be the single biggest man-made gas contributing to climate change - hit another record high.
  • carbon dioxide levels increasing at almost double the rate they were in the early 1980s.
  • combined greenhouse gas rises in 2005 resulted in record levels of greenhouse gas heating, known as radiative forcing, which is driving up the earth's temperature.
The rate of growth is unprecedented:

"We would expect carbon dioxide to grow every year, but I have been surprised that it has been growing at above average rates for four years straight, because we haven't seen that before," lead author Paul Fraser said. "It's a clear signal that fossil fuels are having an impact on greenhouse gas concentrations in a way we haven't seen in the past."

Global warming skeptics please note that it's not just bad news coming out of Gap Grim these days though:

The report's silver lining was the finding that gases that damage the earth's protective ozone layer - such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) once commonly used in refrigerators - have been falling since 1997.

The turnaround is the result of the Montreal Protocol, a legally binding international treaty adopted in 1989 by most countries, including Australia, that forced manufacturers to curb their use of CFCs.

Dr Fraser said it was proof that international agreements have a positive effect.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Global warming is an inevitable process. The Earth goes through a cyclical process in which it cools (hence the ice age) then warms up again over and over again. It?s similar to that of the polarization and reverse polarization of the Earth?s core except that magnetic field does so more rapidly.

I think all the finger point should stop whether it?s being directed towards big oil or world governments. If people are pointlessly worried, engineers at car manufacturing companies are already working on methods in reduction emissions period from automobiles. We may be accelerating it but we're not the cause.

There are millions of different factors contributing to why CO2 levels are so high, it's not just emission. For example, rapid urbanization causes deforestation and that leads to less plants absorbing CO2 gas.

Anonymous said...

The report's silver lining was the finding that gases that damage the earth's protective ozone layer - such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) once commonly used in refrigerators - have been falling since 1997.

The turnaround is the result of the Montreal Protocol, a legally binding international treaty adopted in 1989 by most countries, including Australia, that forced manufacturers to curb their use of CFCs.

Dr Fraser said it was proof that international agreements have a positive effect.