No Good News
A recent report appears to indicate that the world's climate is deteriorating faster than anticipated by the world's atmospheric scientists. The conclusion was reached by scientists studying a plethora of accumulated evidence. Our environment is steadily acquiring more carbon dioxide than expected according, to an international team tasked with isolating signals of change in the global climate.Our planet's traditional "carbon sinks", our great forests and jungles, our oceans and lakes, are being overwhelmed by an inexorably ever-growing incidence of human activity throwing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at an unprecedentedly-accelerated rate. Is it even possible that these carbon-capturing sinks can reach a level of acceptance beyond which their capacity fails?
The report indicates that major droughts during the years between 2002 and 2005 may have led to a lessening of capabilities of the terrestrial carbon sinks. There was a slow-down of tree, shrub and crop growth as a result of drought, translating into a weakening of the carbon-sink system, hauling C02 out of the air. Fewer flora to do their carbon-absorbing work.
A change in traditional wind patterns resulted in a alteration of the "ventilation of carbon-rich waters" in southern oceans in the last seven years. All of which results in a growing incidence of atmospheric C02 accumulation, a huge acceleration of environmental degradation. None of which has been helped by the growing economic activity emanating from India and China, both growth-juggernauts.
Between 2000 and 2006 human-generated environmental emissions grew at a 3% annual rate - four times faster than the previous ten years of study. Climatologists point to an atmospheric C02 concentration of 450 parts per million as the tipping point, the threshold many scientists identify as a trigger leading to mass extinctions, the melting of the Greenland ice cap and the consequent flooding of low-lying areas due to a rise in sea levels.
At the present time our C02 atmospheric concentration stands at 382 ppm. With the concentration now growing at a steady 2 ppm yearly the future looks fearfully questionable. Through the burning of coal, oil and gas, along with deforestation, we're steadily degrading our environment beyond recall. To the tune of 10 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide wafting into the air each year.
Scientists point out that our current atmospheric C02 concentration "is the highest during the past 650,000 years and probably during the last 20 million years", according to the report issued from the Global Carbon Project. Which assembled its conclusions through a synthesis of data drawn from the United Nations and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A respectable source of information, to say the least. So, all those nay-sayers casting doubt about human-related activities triggering the acceleration of our degraded environment may think they know something the scientists and atmospheric climatologists don't know, but it would appear that the record and on-the-ground indicators do indite human activities.
We're more responsible than we'd like to admit. And far more irresponsible than we believe ourselves to be.
Labels: Environment, Political Realities, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, October 23, 2007
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