04 May 2014

Atmospheric CO2 going off the scale

Data from the Scripps Institute at UC-San Diego as reported in an article at Future Tense
Every single daily carbon dioxide measurement in April 2014 was above 400 parts per million. That hasn’t happened in nearly a million years, and perhaps much longer. 
You are quite welcome to argue about why this is happening and what implications it has (or doesn't have), but please refrain for claiming that it is not happening.

And for those who feel this is "just part of normal long-term cyclic variation," this chart:

6 comments:

  1. While I strongly support the concept of global warming and that we must do something about it, I wish these charts had begun at zero instead of 150 and 250. while the data is dramatic and concerning, it does not have to be configured to makes the data seem even more dramatic.

    I believe that you have pointed out the problem of doing this in an earlier post about how Fox News skews data in their reports.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Each graph on the site has a different scale, clearly indicated, to make the trends over each different time period visible. There is no attempt at concealment here, so I think it's a bit unfair to attribute to malice what was quite clearly done for the sake of readability.

      Delete
    2. I don't understand why it would start at zero. There have never been zero parts per million of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere.

      Delete
  2. Maybe I'm misreading it but the second chart does seem to show that it is part of a long term cycle. Those highs and lows seem to occur fairly regularly.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That black line at the far right of the second chart isn't the border of the chart; that's the spike going to 400.

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...