Disturbing climate news this week

[Tonington]

So far this week, two stories have caught my eye. The first was the slowdown of oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide. I posted somewhere earlier this week that as the concentration has grown in the atmosphere, that has forced carbon dioxide to dissolve into the oceans.

Well along comes a finding by researches at University of East Anglia, that the oceans are nearing saturation. The data came in form over 90,000 ship based measurements. The results showed that oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide has halved from the mid 1990's levels to the 2000-2005 period. The results are surprising to say the least.

Dr. Schuster had this to say:

Such large changes are a tremendous surprise. We expected that the uptake would change only slowly because of the ocean's great mass

A slowdown had already been observed in the southern oceans, but these changes in the North Atlantic have taken place much faster.

While the precise mechanisms are unknown, the implications are not good. One quarter of our emissions have been absorbed by the oceans, as one of the two great carbon sinks. If less carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere, well I shouldn't need to explain what that means.

This finding is further troubling when put in context with another finding this week. Ahead of even the fastest growth model of the IPCC, world emissions have now ballooned above 35% of 1990 levels. The results come from a paper published today by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The findings:

The rate of growth in emissions itself grew to 3.3 percent a year, from 2000 to 2006, compared with 1.3 percent a year in the 1990s

So now we have increasing emissions and falling oceanic uptake.

Readers of the skeptical blogs and papers can expect to see the hounds jump all over something I mentioned above: ahead of the fastest growth model from the IPCC. I'm sure once again they will bite the bullet and explain how this proves they are unrelaible.

I'll say this on that. An underachieving model is not cause to throw it out. Who blames faulty models when hedge funds over achieve or when sales top projections? Do they believe that they actually didn't make any money? No, of course not. There is a reason they are called models and not Simulated_reality.

 

[MikeyDB]

Global warming is a myth after all.... carbon in the atmosphere isn't important and if you want proof that its all just a gian hoax.... ask the tinfoil hat crowd or any of the deprecating labels attached to anyone who's brave enough to state the obvious!

The consequences of unbridled consumption are around the corner and until there are dead bodies lying in the streets, morons here at CC and all over the world will continue to deny what's happening.

Perhaps sending more resources to Israel will solve our problems..? Perhaps following the cues of the United States who's hired mercenaries to fight for the "American Dream" all over the planet will shed some light on a course of action....

Our governments are corrupt and manipulated by the wealthy to ensure that the wealthy will be the last to die. "Influence peddlers" from Jerusalem are bleeding America dry while the people of America live with collapsing infrastructure and national disasters. It makes far more sense of course to send a space shuttle to the ISP than it does to spend money on people who are living on the pecipice of disaster and collapse.

Hey keep the beer flowing and the 90" flat screen TV from Walmart running and the worlds a wonderful place!

I have a theory that there's something in the food.

There are more morons and stupidity rampant in the world today than at any other time in the history of mankind.

Even religions and ideologies don't explain the stupidity that seems to becoming the standard in the world.

 

[Twila]

wait until all or most of the ice melts and all that lovely gas from them is released. Then things ought to really pick up.

 

[Tonington]

Well that is the big concern really. If things are moving faster than we expected, then how far away are those destabilizing amplified feedbacks...I don't think anyone has a concrete answer for that.

 

[triedit]

Hasn't the earth gone through this sort of thing before? Ok sure we'll die but the earth will heal itself *wink*

 

[Tonington]

The earth has never had such large volumes of stored hydrocarbons removed and burned, no. But you're right, the earth will always heal itself. I prefer that we not end up as scar tissue personally.

 

[Walter]

There are more morons and stupidity rampant in the world today than at any other time in the history of mankind.

Even religions and ideologies don't explain the stupidity that seems to becoming the standard in the world.

Sounds like you're having a bad day. I'll add you to my prayer list.

 

[Walter]

So far this week, two stories have caught my eye. The first was the slowdown of oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide. I posted somewhere earlier this week that as the concentration has grown in the atmosphere, that has forced carbon dioxide to dissolve into the oceans.

Well along comes a finding by researches at University of East Anglia, that the oceans are nearing saturation. The data came in form over 90,000 ship based measurements. The results showed that oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide has halved from the mid 1990's levels to the 2000-2005 period. The results are surprising to say the least.

Dr. Schuster had this to say:


A slowdown had already been observed in the southern oceans, but these changes in the North Atlantic have taken place much faster.

While the precise mechanisms are unknown, the implications are not good. One quarter of our emissions have been absorbed by the oceans, as one of the two great carbon sinks. If less carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere, well I shouldn't need to explain what that means.

This finding is further troubling when put in context with another finding this week. Ahead of even the fastest growth model of the IPCC, world emissions have now ballooned above 35% of 1990 levels. The results come from a paper published today by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A partial rebuttal by Steve Milloy.

Never mind that this is a mere decade of data restricted to the North Atlantic let's just look at the ways this misfired:

• tramples on another scare: if oceans 'saturate' and stop taking more CO2 then ocean acidification will decline to nothing and builders of chalky skeletons are safe (they are anyway but never mind)
• automated ship cooling water intake measures only sample the very top ocean layers and don't tell us whether more CO2 is being mixed deeper by wind and wave action or biological activity
• data is constrained to increasingly busy shipping lanes which may factor in increased upper layer mixing -- there's a lot of induced turbulence from all that merchant fleet plying the waters in set lanes and considerable crowding of lanes even hundreds of miles from ports, there is zero possibility of sampling undisturbed waters
• atmospheric levels are not keeping up with increased emissions, telling us that sinks are more active than previously estimated or that the half-life of atmospheric CO2 is much less than previously estimated -- either way projections and 'storylines' are significant overestimates

 

[Tonington]

And the ocean is becoming more acidic. The rate of absorption is slowing, that doesn't mean the acidification will stop. The rate halved from previous measures? Take that for what it is.

Is there any reason to believe that the ocean wasn't being mixed by surface winds in 1990? The surface waters are absorbing less carbon dioxide than they used to. If you want to measure the uptake of CO2 by the oceans, you measure surface waters where the uptake happens. Do you want to try to sample deep waters and then try to explain what water currents brought the gas there and from where. Give us a break Steve.

I don't have access to the report, so I can't comment on the methodology of the data collection.

 

[Sparrow]

North Pole 'was once subtropical'
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent
An international scientific team which has been drilling beneath the bed of the Arctic Ocean says it enjoyed a sub-tropical climate 55 million years ago. The Arctic Coring Expedition (Acex) has recovered sediment cores from nearly 400m (1,300ft) below the sea floor.
It says fossilised algae in the cores show the sea temperature was once about 20C, instead of the average now, -1.5C.
The expedition, which has relied on three icebreakers during its work, is now heading back to Tromso in Norway.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3631764.stm

The balance of this article shows how climate has been changing for millions of years. It cooled off during the Ice Age and has been warming up ever since without human help. This is a natural cycle but some have taken advantage of this scare and in the end control the people. Even the IPCC report has not told the whole truth.

 

[eh1eh]

Must have been all those dino farts causing that eh Sparrow. ;-)

 

[Tonington]

The balance of this article shows how climate has been changing for millions of years. It cooled off during the Ice Age and has been warming up ever since without human help. This is a natural cycle but some have taken advantage of this scare and in the end control the people. Even the IPCC report has not told the whole truth.

No one is arguing that the climate doesn't have natural variability. What is argued, rather substantively, is that human activities are proliferating carbon long removed from the natural cycling which does contribute to warming/cooling. Extinctions are also a natural cycle, does anyone argue that we don't also influence that cycle?

 

[Twila]

K, so lets put aside the blame for what/who's causing it. We're ALL going to die if something doesn't change...that isnt' good for our health.. death...makes it impossible to live...or so I've been told

 

[Extrafire]

So far this week, two stories have caught my eye. The first was the slowdown of oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide. I posted somewhere earlier this week that as the concentration has grown in the atmosphere, that has forced carbon dioxide to dissolve into the oceans.

Well along comes a finding by researches at University of East Anglia, that the oceans are nearing saturation.

Well, since you've been saying that the oceans are warming up, and I believe you on that, and since it's well known that when the oceans warm, they release CO2, I fail to see any problem.

 

[Extrafire]

So far this week, two stories have caught my eye. The first was the slowdown of oceanic uptake of carbon dioxide. I posted somewhere earlier this week that as the concentration has grown in the atmosphere, that has forced carbon dioxide to dissolve into the oceans.

Well along comes a finding by researches at University of East Anglia, that the oceans are nearing saturation.

Well, since you've been saying that the oceans are warming up, and I believe you on that, and since it's well known that when the oceans warm, they release CO2, I fail to see any problem.

 

[Tonington]

And those statements aren't at odds whatsoever. It is also true that the oceans are taking in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, evidenced by the increasing carbonic acid. Only they are absorbing less, the equilibrium is shifting in an unfavourable direction.

How is it not a problem if the oceans are releasing more carbon, but taking less from the atmosphere? That is what you call an imbalance, and is one of the reasons carbon dioxide emissions are considered a pollutant. Natural nutrient cycles cannot accommodate the extra carbon dioxide.

 

[DaSleeper]

What is one more GWT:smile:

 

[Chiliagon]

Global warming is a myth after all.... carbon in the atmosphere isn't important and if you want proof that its all just a gian hoax.... ask the tinfoil hat crowd or any of the deprecating labels attached to anyone who's brave enough to state the obvious!

The consequences of unbridled consumption are around the corner and until there are dead bodies lying in the streets, morons here at CC and all over the world will continue to deny what's happening.

Perhaps sending more resources to Israel will solve our problems..? Perhaps following the cues of the United States who's hired mercenaries to fight for the "American Dream" all over the planet will shed some light on a course of action....

Our governments are corrupt and manipulated by the wealthy to ensure that the wealthy will be the last to die. "Influence peddlers" from Jerusalem are bleeding America dry while the people of America live with collapsing infrastructure and national disasters. It makes far more sense of course to send a space shuttle to the ISP than it does to spend money on people who are living on the pecipice of disaster and collapse.

Hey keep the beer flowing and the 90" flat screen TV from Walmart running and the worlds a wonderful place!

I have a theory that there's something in the food.

There are more morons and stupidity rampant in the world today than at any other time in the history of mankind.

Even religions and ideologies don't explain the stupidity that seems to becoming the standard in the world.

yawn.... wake me up when it's over.

 

[darkbeaver]

Global warming is a myth after all.... carbon in the atmosphere isn't important and if you want proof that its all just a gian hoax.... ask the tinfoil hat crowd or any of the deprecating labels attached to anyone who's brave enough to state the obvious!

The consequences of unbridled consumption are around the corner and until there are dead bodies lying in the streets, morons here at CC and all over the world will continue to deny what's happening.

Perhaps sending more resources to Israel will solve our problems..? Perhaps following the cues of the United States who's hired mercenaries to fight for the "American Dream" all over the planet will shed some light on a course of action....

Our governments are corrupt and manipulated by the wealthy to ensure that the wealthy will be the last to die. "Influence peddlers" from Jerusalem are bleeding America dry while the people of America live with collapsing infrastructure and national disasters. It makes far more sense of course to send a space shuttle to the ISP than it does to spend money on people who are living on the pecipice of disaster and collapse.

Hey keep the beer flowing and the 90" flat screen TV from Walmart running and the worlds a wonderful place!

I have a theory that there's something in the food.

There are more morons and stupidity rampant in the world today than at any other time in the history of mankind.

Even religions and ideologies don't explain the stupidity that seems to becoming the standard in the world.

I agree.

 

[petros]

K, so lets put aside the blame for what/who's causing it. We're ALL going to die if something doesn't change...that isnt' good for our health.. death...makes it impossible to live...or so I've been told

It's all a game. If the cash was available to bail out banks why is there no cash for the banks to invest heavily in destructive practice reduction instead of urban development and resources extraction?

It was easy to come up with the money for the scam artists of Wall St, why only dribs and drabs in pointless ventures like ethanol and bio-fuels or banning light bulbs?