Carbon Pollution Touched 800,000 Year Record in 2016, WMO Says (bloomberg.com)

Carbon dioxide levels surged to their highest level in at least 800,000 years because of pollution caused by humans and a strong El Nino event, according to the World Meteorological Organization. From a report: Concentrations of the greenhouse gas increased at a record speed in 2016 to reach an average of 403.3 parts per million, up from 400 parts per million a year earlier, the WMO said in a statement on Monday warning of "severe ecological and economic disruptions." The WMO said the last time the Earth had a comparable concentration of CO2s, the temperature of the planet was 2 degrees to 3 degrees Celsius warmer and sea levels were 10 meters to 20 meters higher than now.

Comments

Re:And yet, little effect

[bravecanadian]

The way you can tell CO2 doesn't have the effect on the climate the fear-mongers want you to think it does, is that as CO2 continues to climb climate changes do not track with CO2 increases, much less exhibit any kind of runaway effect which is the whole reason you were supposed to fear CO2 to begin with.

Luckily even for those of you that continue to fear irrationally, CO2 production will inevitably decline in the coming decades as solar and other forms of renewable energy take over for real, now that that are close to actually making more sense than fossil fuels.

I don't think that you understand the meaning of the word rational.

CO2's effect has been demonstrated conclusively.

..and the deniers will keep on denying.

[Rick Schumann]

Face it: Whether or not it's human-caused, there is literally no downside to our species ceasing to dump unnecessary waste gasses and pollutants into our environment. Saying "it costs too much, it's too much of an economic burden!" is about as short-sighted as you can get. We, as a species, keep shitting all over the planet we live on, and through the magic of denial, expect there's going to be no consequences -- or worse, don't care because the consequences won't affect us, immediately, it'll affect future generations ("that's their problem, not ours, why should we care?"); reprehensible. We have the technology to move away from 100-year-old energy sources, why not use it?

Re:..and the deniers will keep on denying.

[bravecanadian]

Face it: Whether or not it's human-caused, there is literally no downside to our species ceasing to dump unnecessary waste gasses and pollutants into our environment. Saying "it costs too much, it's too much of an economic burden!" is about as short-sighted as you can get. We, as a species, keep shitting all over the planet we live on, and through the magic of denial, expect there's going to be no consequences -- or worse, don't care because the consequences won't affect us, immediately, it'll affect future generations ("that's their problem, not ours, why should we care?"); reprehensible. We have the technology to move away from 100-year-old energy sources, why not use it?

This pretty much sums it up.

Even if it were true that the pollution isn't going to have catastrophic economic and migrant effects (which it isn't unless you watch Fox news) we can still make a better world.. so why not?

Re:..and the deniers will keep on denying.

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

We have the technology to move away from 100-year-old energy sources, why not use it?

We will. We will definitely move to renewable energy. But first, the people in power and the rich have too much of their wealth tied to fossil fuels. They need to divest, dump it into the market while they exit. They use all the propaganda to make sure the market does not suddenly collapse for them. Once the rich have fully divested, and all these chumps who trust their leaders shouting "drill, baby drill", "dig, baby dig" own the stocks, that market will collapse.

Already in the coal mines, all those companies that were planning to mine for decades have sold out to shorter term companies. They raided the pension funds, rights of way, railroad rolling stock etc, and cashed out. The next round of buyers picked the bones more. Waterway access, scenic lodges, etc were stripped out. The next round of owners decided to sacrifice all maintenance and safety and expansion, use local tax abatements and other tax payer supported incentives milk them all dry. They see no new coal fired power plant is opening, dirty coal is more expensive than natural gas, which is getting to be more expensive than wind and solar for new installations. They are dumping coal companies.

The coal miners and their communities that deserve to be taken care of by rest of the nation are being abandoned. They bite the hand that reaches out to them, and they trust the people who stab them in their back. Very sorry for them.

So eventually, in twenty or thirty years, when history books are written the descendants of these coal miners will read how their grand parents were taken for a ride.

Re:I 3 Global Warming

[deviated_prevert]

CO2 provides raw material for plant photosynthesis, which helps to grow food. Global warming = more food.

Food plants can't tolerate a desert. What we are doing is creating changes to the areas that produce the food. Even India, the greatest food producing nation on earth is suffering from localized seasonal temperature pattern changes that are slowly making areas that once produced food uninhabitable. The Mediterranean climate influenced food producing regions of Spain are also experiencing changes that make areas less productive of food and will kill humans at certain times of the year when temperatures soar to levels over 115f for weeks at a time.

But amongst the climate change deniers there are also those who think that rapid melting of permafrost will open up vast areas of land to agriculture. Little do they understand that the areas they so wrongly think can support agriculture are in reality are mostly the cold northern deserts which do not have the rainfall to support agriculture. In contrast the areas around the equator which have high rain fall are very low in biomass and when the farmers slash and burn the rain forests the land exposed cannot produce food for more than a few years.

The highest food producing areas of Western North America in California, which by and large rely upon water from systems that are slowly but surely being effected by less and less rainfall on the mountains of West Coast. So the water levels in the Colorado at lake Mead and the other dam ridden systems are slowly cycling lower and lower each year. While ironically the lakes behind the dams are filling with sediment at a faster than predicted rate because of sudden snow melts after large snow fall instead of a predictable cycle of sedimentation.

On top of this California which relies almost entirely upon imported water from the greater Pacific water shed is also experiencing what Spain, Portugal and other areas with similar climate parameters is also headed for dangerous ground in terms of losing areas of habitability due to prolonged heat waves.

We are raping the planet and as we reach the tipping point and start to see the serious consequences of our greed and stupidity there will always be those with rose coloured glasses who claim that the good ship earth is unsinkable.

2010 era technology is solar

[XXongo]

Insofar as he understands anything, he knows the desires of political hacks who will use this for massive control of the economy so they can get huge kickbacks to ease off a bit.

Ooh, libertarian-tainted conspiracy thinkings! The global illuminati/socialist/masonic/Rothschild conspiracy is making its bid for global control, and they're using solar power as their tool! Everybody organize to stop it!

Follow the money.

OK. The fossil fuel industry is a trillion dollar a year industry. Everything else is trivial compared to that number. Money followed: the fossil fuel industry is driving everything.

We should no more be throwing brakes on the economy

OK. To not brake the economy, the best thing to do would be to go rapidly into new energy technologies, which are economic growth areas, and quit supporting antique fossil-fuel plants that haven't been updates since Ford was in office.

than people in 1900 should have to "help" us today...leaving us with 1970 level tech (if that) in 2017.

Coal power is 1920s decade technology. Wind is 1990s decade technology. Low cost solar is 2000s decade technology. High capacity battery night storage is 2010 decade technology. If you're worried about 1970 level tech, that was fossil fuel, allright.

(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.

How about "moderation -1 stupid" instead?

Re: Runaway effect? Nope.

[jbengt]

2C makes a huge difference in the timing of spring & fall weather, in the elevations at which certain plants can live (and they can't simply move) and in the ability of pests to survive in different locations.
Whether changes are limited to 2C average remains to be seen, especially as CO2 changes have been happening very quickly (in geological terms) and the ability of the ocean to absorb CO2 and heat has left the atmospheric climate changes to lag, so far.