Carbon dioxide is the most important long-lived global warming gas, and
once it is emitted by burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil, a
single CO2 molecule can remain in the atmosphere for hundreds of years...
By drilling for ice cores and analyzing the air bubbles, scientists have
found that, at no point during at least the past 800,000 years have
atmospheric CO2 levels been as high as they are now...
For a 2009 study, published in the journal Science,
scientists analyzed shells in deep sea sediments to estimate past CO2
levels, and found that CO2 levels have not been as high as they are now
for at least the past 10 to 15 million years, during the Miocene epoch.
Text from
Climate Central, via
On Weather. While it's possible that there may have been transient spikes in the remote past not sampled in ice-core type data, there is no arguing about the direction of the present trend (Keeling curve at top) or the departure from historic norms.
And yet no warming for the last 16 years...
ReplyDeletewhat planet do you live on?
DeleteSorry. That's just not true. Check the data from NASA/GISS and/or NOAA/ERSST. These are the most valid and reliable data available. The past few decades have been the warmest on record. 2010 was the warmest year ever recorded. The second was 2005. Since 1980, if I recall, we've experienced the warmest 14 years in the past 133.
ReplyDeleteWell we do emit a lot of green house gas what with cars, planes, trucks, etc... We could scrap it all and install energy efficient, non-fossil-fuel burning, electric mass transit systems (similar to china's plan) but it would be awfully inconvenient for the oil, auto and highway industries.
ReplyDeleteWe also emit a lot of greenhouse gas raising animals for their meat (18% of all greenhouse gas emissions directly, as much as 51% if you include indirect pollution [source]), we could scrap all that and stop raising animals for food (side effects: we would instantly solve a lot of water shortage problems and reverse many types of lifestyle diseases), but it would be awfully inconvenient to the average American, so that's not going to happen either.
DeleteImho it's Easter Island all over again.
Don't forget that in addition to core samples from 800,000 year old glaciers, we have core samples from 400,000 year old trees that also match with the rest of the data we've obtained. At this point anyone who doesn't believe in global warming is either completely ignorant of the data or willfully lying.
ReplyDelete