Carbon dioxide level highest in 650,000 years

Mongabay.com ^ | 11/24/2005 | Staff

[writer33]

Carbon dioxide levels are now 27 percent higher than at any point in the last 650,000 years, according to research into Antarctic ice cores published on Thursday in Science.

Analysis of carbon dioxide in the ancient Antarctic ice showed that at no point in the past 650,000 years did levels approach today's carbon dioxide concentrations of around 380 parts per million (ppm). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projects that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could reach 450-550 ppm by 2050, possibly resulting in higher temperatures and rising sea levels (see "Ocean levels rising twice as fast"). There is fear that climate change could create a class of environmental refugees displaced from their homes by rising oceans, increasingly catastrophic weather, and expanding deserts.

Carbon dioxide is the principal "greenhouse" gas thought to be driving global warming. Humans boost carbon dioxide levels primarily by the combustion of fossils fuels and deforestation, and accordingly, atmospheric concentrations have risen sharply since the industrial revolution. Today the United States, the world's largest economy and consumer of energy, produces about 24% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

[writer33]

We're doomed. We're all doomed! You're not going to enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend!

:) HA!

[Altair333]

All right, let's call off the Industrial Revolution and go back to a hunter-gatherer society.

[GBA]

If only the politicians would save us.

[writer33]

Finally, someone who gets it. Maybe, we can do away with electricity, plumbing, etc...

Things'll be great then. Good eye, A.

:)

[writer33]

That's right. Why isn't our government doing anything about this looming disaster? I know my whole Thanksgiving has gone down the tubes because of it.

I don't know if I can go back to work Monday.

:)

[Michael Goldsberry]

*Ahem!*

Bush's fault!

[Cacique]

If liberals and mooselimbs stopped breathing it would go a long way to cutting carbon dioxide emmissions in half. It would also lower the amount of hot air in the atmosphere.

[xcamel]

and everything that breathes produces the other 76%

[Swordmaker]

Nose Pickings...

[Ken522]

So CO-2 levels are the highest they've been in the last 650,000 years ... isn't live grand?! If carbon dioxide levels were much lower, we'd probably have a colder, dryer atmosphere - and that's not good at all.

[billybudd]

Carbon dioxide levels are now 27 percent higher than at any point in the last 650,000 years

"...CO2 levels have not been this high since 650,000 years ago, when the last human industrial expansion took place."

[xcamel]

All those school kids playing with dry ice too....

[crazyhorse691]

Carbon dioxide level highest in 650,000 years

---

My backyard monitor says 649,648 years. I won't be able to sleep until I find that missing 352 years.

[writer33]

You're right. Bush hasn't done a thing, and I want someting done now. Not to mention he's polluting more of the clean, pristine, Iraq environment with his war.

:)

[HereInTheHeartland]

I knew that I should have put the cap back on the Pepsi bottle.

[writer33]

I'm with Cacique.

Good idea. :)

[writer33]

And that's why we're doomed. Everyone should stop breathing.

I'm scared and I want you to be scared too.

:)

[writer33]

I guess that's better than having a bone to pick with anyone.

[writer33]

If this doesn't scare you, I don't know what will, Ken.

:)

[writer33]

"...CO2 levels have not been this high since 650,000 years ago, when the last human industrial expansion took place."

And that's why we need to regress, back to a better America, where we grew crops and were one with the Earth. :)