Is It Getting Hot In Here?

In my first post I said that I was reading the book Six Degrees, Our Future On A Hotter Planet, by Mark Lynas.  I also shared a link to the authors webpage , on this page it states that the book had been made in to a documentary by National Geographic. This is a very interesting, thought provoking program that (purely for educational purposes) I share here.   All material and rights belongs to National Geographic and the video is available on YouTube. 

 

 

So rather than take my word for it, you can watch it yourself and formulate your own conclusions. 

 

CO₂, Natural & Anthropogenic

As any basic chemistry book will tell you, CO₂ is an odourless, colourless gas.  The compound itself consists of a carbon atom and two oxygen atoms, but I’m not here to give you a chemistry lesson and I am quietly confident that this is incredibly familiar information.  But where does the CO₂ in the atmosphere come from?  Sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide can be categorised as either natural or anthropogenic.  Even a basic illustration of the carbon cycle can highlight this nicely.



http://www.wpclipart.com/space/solar_system/Earth/ecology/carbon_cycle_NOAA.jpg.html

As you can see there are a number of sources of atmospheric CO₂ including plant and animal respiration, organic decomposition , volcanic outgassing/eruption as well as anthropogenic sources, namely via combustion of fossil fuels.



http://www.ipcc.ch/activities/activities.shtml 

According to the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), which was released between September 2013 and November 2014 (http://www.ipcc.ch/activities/activities.shtml).  2011 saw CO₂ levels reach 390.5ppm which represents a 40% increase from the levels of 1750, which the IPCC AR5 reports to of been 278ppm.

Just as a point of interest, the AR5 also states that during the same time interval there were also increases in Methane (CH₄) and Nitrous oxide (N₂O) levels.  The report also states that levels of all three (CO₂, CH₄ and N₂O) exceeded any levels measured for the past 800,000 years (http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/  [Chapter 6, page 467]). 

Furthermore, the AR5 states that ice cores show that atmospheric CO₂ levels for the last 7000 years preceding 1750 saw slow increases from 260ppm to 280ppm.  But CO₂ levels have also seen fluctuations from 180ppm during glacial periods over the past 800,000 years up to 300ppm during interglacial periods (http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/  [Chapter 6, page 468]).

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a thought.....

As I mentioned in my first post, I am new to blogging.  But have decided to set myself somewhat of a format to my posts.  The reason for this is to allow not only myself, but also anyone who is taking the time to follow me the ability to build up a picture of the topic in hand.  With this in mind, I felt it prudent to firstly consider (if only briefly) CO₂ in itself, its causes, both natural and anthropogenic and the role it plays in our atmosphere e.g. how it influences global temperatures. 

I then plan to move on to consider CO₂ levels and global temperatures of the past, the present and the future projections of CO₂ levels and the resulting influences on global temperatures. 

I do wonder, if as a result of this I will in time come to formulate any solid, satisfying answers to just some of my many questions relating to anthropogenically induced CO₂ rises.  For example; do we have a moral obligation to the other life forms of the Earth to manage the CO₂ which we produce?  Do we only manage it to save humanity or to also protect ‘nature’?  And, if we do it to protect ‘nature’ is this due to its usefulness to humanity or for its own intrinsic value?  If CO₂ levels and global temperatures of past climates have varied without the action of man then should we really concern ourselves with variances as a result of our actions now? 

I do currently feel that we should hold ourselves accountable and that we should act to mitigate anthropogenic CO₂ level increases and the resulting impacts upon the natural world.  Will my views changes as I delve deeper into the literature?  Surely the ‘business as usual’ approach is no longer viable?



Picture courtesy of; http://www.earthtimes.org/newsimage/co2-release-fast-environment-cope-geologists_66.jpg