Major temperature rise recorded in Arctic this year: German scientists

[Systematic Chaos]

PARIS (AFP) - German scientists probing global warming said they had detected a major temperature rise this year in the Arctic Ocean and linked this to a progressive shrinking of the region's sea ice.

Temperatures recorded this year in the upper 500 metres (1,625 feet) of sea in the Fram Strait -- the gap between Greenland and the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen -- were up to 0.6 C (1.08 F) higher than in 2003, they said in a press release received here.

<snip>

CO2 levels recorded in March 2004 at Hawaii measured 379 parts per million (ppm), an increase of three ppm over the previous year.


By comparison, there had been an annual increase of only 1.8 ppm over the past decade. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 before the Industrial Revolution were 280 ppm.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1540&ncid=1540&e=2&u=/afp/20040828/sc_afp/climate_arctic">Complete story here

Yeah, it's getting pretty bad, people.... :scared:

On edit: Whoops, I didn't even see this article in LBN even though I quickly scanned for it. Sorry dArKeR. :( Mods can delete if they see fit....

[RC]

1. They keep blaming Global Warming on

man made sources of CO being released into the atmosphere.
I'm starting to think the real cause is because we are cutting down the forests and paving over the world.

On further thought, the reason we are cutting down the forests and paving over the world is to make room for our excessive numbers.
Our numbers already far exceeds the long term ability of this planet to support us and Global Warming is but a symptom.
Don't worry though, when we run out of oil, the law of unintended consequences will reduce our numbers to manageable levels.

[Dogmudgeon]

5. I hope you're right, but I fear you're not

As I wrote below, the process may be working on a feedback loop now. The heating is producing more greenhouse gas by liberating methane in oceanbed clathrates, in arctic peat moss bogs, and it seems as though the ocean's ability to "sink" carbon has been sharply reduced from plankton die-offs.

Deforestation is part of this process.

In other words, even if we stop our own nonsense, the ball has already started rolling.

Very true, global warming is one of the symptoms of Humankind's follies. But I think it's easier to start than to stop. If the climate abruptly shifts, we may get die-offs before we run out of plentiful petrochemical-source fertilizer.

--bkl

[hatrack]

2. 1.08 F in a single year?!?

That's an extremely rapid rate of increase.

[phantom power]

3. $@!#$@!% chaos-butterfly!

(apologies to Ruben Bolling)

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Asymptotic increase?

I think we're beyond the knee of the curve.

In other words, the part of the graph we are on has become the part that turns upwards real fast.

CO₂ is rising at 3 ppm -- that's incredibly fast. The Arctic thaw is certain to release huge amounts of organic methane (mainly from peat), which is 10-50 times as effective a greenhouse gas as CO₂. Oceanic warming is reaching the point where it is liberating methane from methane clathrates on the seabed.

If you'll notice, the weather in Europe has been abnormal for at least two years now; last Summer was the hottest in at least 500 years, and this year, gale after gale are pounding Europe, with a cold snap in July that produced snow in Germany, Poland, and Russia. It's also been cool in the eastern part of North America, with winter-like high pressure systems parking themselves over the Laurentide. This, ironically, may be from a warmer-than-usual Atlantic.

An El Niño is well on its way forming in the Pacific, and the Monsoon season is very late in coming to south Asia. Typhoon season in the Pacific basin should also provide a interesting source of study.

I think that this is leading to a "climate flip-flop" point, only no one knows what that point is. It seems to occur at about 400 ppm CO₂, but that's a rough guesstimate. It is worth noting that we'll be at 400 ppm within a decade -- less, if the trends accelerate, as they seem to be doing.

I do have a request -- I am having difficulty tracking down temperature data for the upper troposphere and stratosphere (anything above 3000 meters' altitude). My old links to NOAA don't work anymore and I haven't been able to do much poking around. If someone out there could provide me with usable links, I'd be quite grateful.

--bkl

[CHIMO]

6. CO2 Affect On Earth

Beyond the warming consequences of CO2 I have not seen anything on the chemical results of the increase in CO2.
I have just gone through "Water Chemistry" by V. Snoeyink & D. Jenkins. I never realized the influence of CO2 on the chemical effect. (The text is a technical analysis from the 1980's)
The time lags are large. The buffering effect may be leading us all to unknown things.

I just have my 1000 post!

[Viking12]

7. Anthropogenic carbon and ocean pH

Nature 425, 365 (25 September 2003).


Oceanography: Anthropogenic carbon and ocean pH

The coming centuries may see more ocean acidification than the past 300 million years.


Most carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the burning of fossil fuels will eventually be absorbed by the ocean1, with potentially adverse consequences for marine biota2-4. Here we quantify the changes in ocean pH that may result from this continued release of CO2 and compare these with pH changes estimated from geological and historical records. We find that oceanic absorption of CO2 from fossil fuels may result in larger pH changes over the next several centuries than any inferred from the geological record of the past 300 million years, with the possible exception of those resulting from rare, extreme events such as bolide impacts or catastrophic methane hydrate degassing.