Humanity Responsible For Current Climate Change

tehanu writes "Scientists working with Antarctic ice have found that the level of greenhouse gases is at the highest level in over half a million years. Carbon dioxide is 27% higher now than any other time over the last 650 000 years. Methane, an even stronger greenhouse gas is 130% higher. The period of time studied covers eight full glacial cycles including a time when the earth's position relative to the sun is the same as it is today. Other scientists have found that the annual rate at which the sea has risen since the industrial revolution is twice that of over the last 5000 years. It is predicted that by 2100 the sea level will be 40cm higher. These results provide strong evidence that human activity since the industrial revolution, rather than just natural processes, has strongly altered the world's climate. As one of the scientists involved in the research put it: 'The levels of primary greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are up dramatically since the Industrial Revolution, at a speed and magnitude that the Earth has not seen in hundreds of thousands of years.'"

Comments

No! God did it!

[NotQuiteReal]

People have only been here a few thousand years, right? Intelligent design and all that.

Any rise in temperature must be part of the Grand Design.

Don't sweat it! (e.g. shit happens.)

Re:No! God did it!

[luder]

You insensitive clod! Everybody knows it is because of the pirates!

Nothing to see here

[doxology]

Of course the world is heating up. The rapture is nigh!

Re:Solar Activiity is at its highest levels since

[Crashmarik]

Oops make that signs should not read slashdot while doing math.

Bad news?

[MutantHamster]

"It is predicted that by 2100 the sea level will be 40cm higher."

Awesome. That's 40 cm less I have to drive to get to the beach.

Up by Fargo, Global Warming can't come too soon!

[Robotbeat]

I live in Minnesota, and it was about 8 degrees Fahrenheit (about -13.3 C) on Turkey Day morning, so I don't really give a hoot that all you suckers in Florida are gonna drown, winter is COLD up here, and I'm for as much global warming as we can push out of our gas-guzzling tanks-as-SUVs. I mean, I think there's a "Minnesotans for Global Warming" club somewhere, and I want to join! (We have recorded -60F (-51C) temperatures in MN like 10 years, and that ain't no stinking wind chill, either, so we have pretty harsh winters!)

(In other news, sell any property you own near sea level.)

Bigger picture

[wombatmobile]

Carbon dioxide is 27% higher now than any other time over the last 650 000 years.

But the Earth is 4.5 billion years old.

Maybe the C02 level rises every million years or so, each time life evolves into things that make internal combustion engines. Then it falls for a while after each thermonuclear war.

A graph of the last 3 million years?

Re:Good -- treat this as investment advice

[flitelog]

I just bought a home 10 miles from the ocan. I figure, in 30 years (when I retire) I'll be sitting on ocean front property!

1. Buy land a few feet above sea level

2. Steady the course, environomentally

3. Sell ocean front real-estate in 30 years

4. PROFIT!

The Christian Right's response...

[Stoopid-Guy0]

Global warming is a theory, not a science. Intelligent Warming, anyone?

Re:Up by Fargo, Global Warming can't come too soon

[humankind]

Congrats, you've finally figured out a way of making Minnesota appealing.

Re:Links

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what I got out of your post:

1. You had a discussion about this subject in the past week or so.
2. You think you won the discussion.
3. Your opponent was, in your opinion, unreasonable.
4. He didn't appreciate your attitude.
5. You didn't appreciate his attitude.
6. People like him usually make their points by pointing out people and organizations supporting their view.
7. Monte Hieb, who posts at geocraft.com, supports your view.
8. Over the past 65 years temperatures have sometimes trended up and sometimes trended down.

Did I get that right?

Irony

[MarkusQ]

What I find ironic is how often people who don't trust the fossil fuel industry, and claim not to believe anything they say, etc. have been taken in by the anti-nuclear FUD spread by the very people they claim to distrust.

It's like some bad comedy routine.

Joe Public: I don't trust you.
Coal and Oil guy: I can understand that.
Joe Public: Nothing you can say will make me trust you.
Coal and Oil guy: I know just how you feel.
Joe Public: You do?
Coal and Oil guy: Sure. See that guy standing over there? The one with the pocket protector?
Joe Public: What, Nuclear Guy? Sure, I see him.
Coal and Oil guy: I don't trust him at all.
Joe Public: Why not?
Coal and Oil guy: He wants to kill all our babies and make giant insects and stuff.
Joe Public: Really?
Coal and Oil guy: Really. And he wants to make stuff that will kill people a bazillion years from now if they so much as think about it. That's why I don't trust him.
Joe Public: Wow. Thanks for the warning. But this isn't going to make me trust you any more than I did before.
Coal and Oil guy: I can understand that. Just so long as you don't trust him either.
Joe Public: Or don't worry about that. That guy is scary!

--MarkusQ

SpaceBalls

[chef_raekwon]

1. Buy Air Filtration Unit before Air gets really bad

2. Start putting Air into neat little cans, with 2 nostril holes

3. Call your new product 'Perri-Air'

4. !?!

5. PROFIT!!

We need more...PIRATES!!

[Djevik]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_spaghetti_mons ter

Re:It doesn't matter how much evidence is found.

[dubl-u]

So what if we are exitinct? Who cares?

After you, pal.

Re:I Dont Care Anymore

[niktemadur]

...the cockroaches can take a shot at running the place

I, for one, do NOT welcome our new blattarian overlords.

That said, if they end up being half as dumb as humans, they'll probably mass-produce Raid for military purposes.