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CO2 Levels Reach 400ppm at Mauna Loa For First Time On Record
Titus Andronicus writes "Today, NOAA reported, 'On May 9, the daily mean concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mauna Loa, Hawaii, surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time since measurements began in 1958.' For comparison, over the last 800,000 years, CO2 has ranged from roughly 180 ppm to 280 ppm. 'For the entire period of human civilization, roughly 8,000 years, the carbon dioxide level was relatively stable near that upper bound. But the burning of fossil fuels has caused a 41 percent increase in the heat-trapping gas since the Industrial Revolution, a mere geological instant, and scientists say the climate is beginning to react, though they expect far larger changes in the future.' The last time Earth had 400 ppm was probably more than 3 megayears ago."
I guess it's my turn to do remedial science for the resident conservatives.
The carbon in the CO2 that you or I breathe out comes from the food we eat. That carbon is balanced by the CO2 that was removed from the atmosphere when this food was grown or raised, probably within the last year or so. When plants grow, where do you think the carbon comes from? It's not the soil - it's from CO2 drawn out of the atmosphere. Now, when we burn fossil fuels like coal or oil, that carbon had been buried for hundreds of millions of years. Or, if you're a conservative, maybe 6,000 years when God put it there. Either way, that means that when you burn it, it's not offset by CO2 that was removed from the atmosphere any time recently. So, CO2 levels rise.
Sorry if I have to talk to you like you're babies, but maybe if you'd get your heads out of the butts of Fox News and the like I wouldn't have to.