Carbon dioxide passes symbolic mark!

[karl]

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have broken through a symbolic mark.

Daily measurements of CO2 at a US government agency lab on Hawaii have topped 400 parts per million for the first time.

The station, which sits on the Mauna Loa volcano, feeds its numbers into a continuous record of the concentration of the gas stretching back to 1958.

The last time CO2 was regularly above 400ppm was three to five million years ago - before modern humans existed.

Scientists say the climate back then was also considerably warmer than it is today.


Full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22486153

[Reanne]

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have broken through a symbolic mark.

Daily measurements of CO2 at a US government agency lab on Hawaii have topped 400 parts per million for the first time.

The station, which sits on the Mauna Loa volcano, feeds its numbers into a continuous record of the concentration of the gas stretching back to 1958.

The last time CO2 was regularly above 400ppm was three to five million years ago - before modern humans existed.

Scientists say the climate back then was also considerably warmer than it is today.


Full story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22486153

It's no big deal then... it's not like the Earth is going to end. It's all been experienced before and we are still here. CO2 is actually a good thing and it's food for plants and will make them grow.

If CO2 levels were higher millions of years ago and it wasn't man made then, why would it be now? Most of the CO2 comes from the water... the climate is always changing and we play no part in it, it's called mother nature ;)

[Jess]

Huh, interesting. I did not know it happened before >_<

[Azunite]

How the hell do they know about the Carbon dioxide leves from several million years ago?

[Iron Man]

How the hell do they know about the Carbon dioxide leves from several million years ago?

They used time machines.

But seriously, they probably just make it up as they go along.

[Bethany]

Haha, I have no idea how they know the ppi for millions of years ago.

On the climate change debate...In my opinion, "there's no climate change" shouldn't be used as an excuse to lighten pollution regulations and to not impose strict regulations on pollution. It's fairly obvious that, even if human pollution isn't causing climate change (as I believe it is), all of this shit in the air is not good for any of us.

[drew6]

Looks like we better plant more trees and not exhale. Or the trees should be doing their job better. Stupid trees.

[karl]

Since of the Earth's atmosphere is out-of-balance with the conditions expected from simple chemical equilibrium, it is very hard to say what precisely sets the level of the carbon dioxide content in the air throughout geologic time. While scientists are fairly certain that a 100 million years ago carbon dioxide values were many times higher than now, the exact value is in doubt. In very general terms, long-term reconstructions of atmospheric CO2 levels going back in time show that 500 million years ago atmospheric CO2 was some 20 times higher than present values. It dropped, then rose again some 200 million years ago to 4-5 times present levels--a period that saw the rise of giant fern forests--and then continued a slow decline until recent pre-industrial time.

Read full article here: http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/climatechange2/07_1.shtml

[Human]

How the hell do they know about the Carbon dioxide leves from several million years ago?

They visit the Artic and get ice cores, which contain trapped air.

Before I researched myself into global warming I thought it meant the end for us all, but after my own looking into I'm a lot more skeptic. I'm worried but not as much as before.

[Azunite]

They visit the Artic and get ice cores, which contain trapped air.

Before I researched myself into global warming I thought it meant the end for us all, but after my own looking into I'm a lot more skeptic. I'm worried but not as much as before.

Yeah but how do they know that that air was trapped there for X amount of time?

[Human]

Yeah but how do they know that that air was trapped there for X amount of time?

Well it's perma ice so it has pretty much never melted. You can see layers in the ice core, and the experts can tell annual layers. So the more layers, the longer time.

[CharlieHorse]

They used time machines.

But seriously, they probably just make it up as they go along.

Ever heard of ice cores?

[Iron Man]

Ever heard of ice cores?

Oh yeah, forgot about em.

[Reanne]

They visit the Artic and get ice cores, which contain trapped air.

Before I researched myself into global warming I thought it meant the end for us all, but after my own looking into I'm a lot more skeptic. I'm worried but not as much as before.

There are far too many people making money out of the "man made global warming" debate and for them to keep getting money they have to keep telling us how bad it will be and dramatize the whole thing. The simple facts are even with their worst predictions the Earth is not going to end.

People adapt to change and some places will actually be better if there is warming.

[BWLC]

cool

[Eddie.37]

oh I've heard about this. We shouldn't really get worried, but it should serve as an eye-opener. We wouldn't want our CO2 levels to keep going up until we end up like Venus