Global carbon dioxide levels set to pass 400ppm milestone

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Guardian

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 399.72 parts per million (ppm) and is likely to pass the symbolically important 400ppm level for the first time in the next few days.

Readings at the US government's Earth Systems Research laboratory in Hawaii, are not expected to reach their 2013 peak until mid May, but were recorded at a daily average of 399.72ppm on 25 April. The weekly average stood at 398.5 on Monday.

Hourly readings above 400ppm have been recorded six times in the last week, and on occasion, at observatories in the high Arctic. But the Mauna Loa station, sited at 3,400m and far away from major pollution sources in the Pacific Ocean, has been monitoring levels for more than 50 years and is considered the gold standard.

"I wish it weren't true but it looks like the world is going to blow through the 400ppm level without losing a beat. At this pace we'll hit 450ppm within a few decades," said Ralph Keeling, a geologist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography which operates the Hawaiian observatory.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/29/global-carbon-dioxide-levels

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/apr/29/global-carbon-dioxide-levels

[AtheistCrusader]

1. A few decades?

Think we have that long huh?

[truebrit71]

3. Yeah, that is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too optimistic...

...it'll most likely hit that number in the next 10 years..

[xtraxritical]

6. Melting permafrost releases methane, mas malo.

The tipping point is here now.

[AverageJoe90]

12. In all likelihood, probably about 15-20 years or so. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, dipsydoodle.

[Stuart G]

4. K and R nt. thanks for posting

[cynzke]

5. At least.

The wealthy will die in comfort as they slowly poison the planet.

[xtraxritical]

7. They're eating their grandchildren!

[GliderGuider]

8. The problem is, WE are the wealthy.

Sux to be us.

[GliderGuider]

9. At the current rate it will take just 20 years to surpass 450.

But we may have less than a decade to go before Arctic methane releases trigger runaway warming. That means warming that continues even if we completely stop burning fossil fuels.

What happens to civilization with 450 ppm, rising average temperatures, increasingly deeper periods of drought in the world's food growing regions, increasing energy prices, increasing destabilization of global finance etc.? Fast crash, slow squeeze, fragmentation?

Think windmills and solar panels are going to prevent this outcome? Think again.

Thanks for the post, dipsydoodle.

[xtraxritical]

10. Positively Malthusian.

[GliderGuider]

11. Pretty much, yes. nt

[GliderGuider]

13. According to a couple of sources, the sustainable human population is under 50 million.

In an article earlier this year I pegged the level of human population that is probably sustainable over the long term at just 20 to 50 million individuals.

An article published by the British Royal Society in 2003 (Is Humanity Sustainable?) concludes that our population is at least 190 times higher that it should be for sustainability. That puts the sustainable population at about 37 million, almost exactly halfway between my two bounds.

If human numbers are not sustainable, then they will decline at some point. It's kind of axiomatic. I haven't a clue about how that will happen, or how fast, but I expect it to happen only as a result of a global ecological crisis, not in anticipation of one. Given the remaining 20 year window I see for Business As Usual, I expect the early effects (which are already visible) to be undeniable, even by politicians, within the next decade or so.

[AverageJoe90]

15. Nothing but complete woo, as usual.

Hey Paulie, shouldn't you be over at the Pseudoscience forums? I suspect you'd be quite welcome there.....

[hatrack]

14. When discussing a donut, it's hardly shocking to mention that it has a hole in it nt

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