It's official- we're doomed :( (Carbon Dioxide Level Alert!)

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**angelofvengeance**

Congrats folks, we fethed up our planet. No asteroid, no aliens. Just us.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2016/09/29/carbon-dioxide-levels-400-ppm-scripps-mauna-loa-global-warming/91279952/

Carbon dioxide — the gas scientists say is most responsible for global warming — reached a significant symbolic milestone in our atmosphere this month, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said.

For the first time, daily and weekly values of carbon dioxide in our planet's atmosphere have remained above 400 parts per million, said Scripps scientist Ralph Keeling, keeper of his father's famed "Keeling Curve," the longest continuous record of atmospheric carbon dioxide on Earth.

Ralph Keeling and his late father Charles David Keeling have kept CO2 measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii since 1958.

"We won’t be seeing a monthly value below 400 ppm this year — or ever again for the indefinite future," Keeling wrote in a recent blog post.

The increase in gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide is fueling climate change and making "the planet more dangerous and inhospitable for future generations," the World Meteorological Organization has said.

Increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases are enhancing the planet's natural "greenhouse effect."

Based on paleoclimatic evidence, the last time carbon dioxide reached 400 ppm was millions of years ago, according to the journal Nature Geoscience. A 2009 report in the journal found evidence of CO2 levels of 365 ppm to 415 ppm roughly 4.5 million years ago.

CO2 levels were around 280 ppm prior to the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s, when large amounts of greenhouse gases began to be released by the burning of fossil fuels.

The burning of the oil, gas and coal for energy releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. These gases have caused the Earth's temperature to rise over the past century to levels that cannot be explained by natural variability.

Carbon dioxide is invisible, odorless and colorless, yet it's responsible for 63% of the warming attributable to all greenhouse gases, according to NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.
Levels of carbon dioxide go up and down each year, reaching their highest levels in May and then going back down in the fall as plants absorb the gas.

"By November, we will be marching up the rising half of the cycle, pushing toward new highs and perhaps even breaking the 410 ppm barrier," Keeling said.

**welshhoppo**

It could be worse.

But I'll probably be dead by the time this becomes a concern for everyone, but we seriously do need to step up our game.

**Frazzled**

Everyone quickly! Panic and give me all your stuff.

First World problems.

**Waaagh_Gonads**

So we returned it to a level that it has been at before?

GO TEAM HUMAN!!!

**NinthMusketeer**

We are doomed! Again! Humans have been saying the apocalypse is just around the corner ever since we came up with the idea of an apocalypse.

But on a more serious note what I find most disappointing about this whole thing is how many people in the US, supposedly a country of relatively educated people, still deny global warming basically just because the Republicans say it isn't real.

**Rosebuddy**

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:
So we returned it to a level that it has been at before?

GO TEAM HUMAN!!!

Modern ecosystems, particularly massive industrial agriculture, weren't around four and a half million years ago.

**whembly**

NinthMusketeer wrote:

But on a more serious note what I find most disappointing about this whole thing is how many people in the US, supposedly a country of relatively educated people, still deny global warming basically just because the Republicans say it isn't real.

The argument is whether or not it's caused by humans... not that it isn't happening.

**Rosebuddy**

whembly wrote:
NinthMusketeer wrote:

But on a more serious note what I find most disappointing about this whole thing is how many people in the US, supposedly a country of relatively educated people, still deny global warming basically just because the Republicans say it isn't real.

The argument is whether or not it's caused by humans... not that it isn't happening.

People are doing both. I'm not sure which is more popular but both of those are definitely being pushed. every year when it snows you get all this nonsense about how it would sure be nice with some GLO-BAL WARMING amiright??, which is memorable really only because of how tiresome it is.

**Vaktathi**

We have a presidential candidate, just a few weeks from the election, on record within election season as calling Global Warming, as a whole, a (Chinese) hoax. There are a huge number of people that still refuse to acknowledge that global warming is a thing, much less that humans might be the cause.

**whembly**

What I found interesting is that now Clinton is pushing for more nukes (as the cleaner source).

That'd be awesome!

**jreilly89**

Vaktathi wrote:
We have a presidential candidate, just a few weeks from the election, on record within election season as calling Global Warming, as a whole, a (Chinese) hoax. There are a huge number of people that still refuse to acknowledge that global warming is a thing, much less that humans might be the cause.

Those people are called stupid. Not Republicans, global warming deniers.

**Ustrello**

whembly wrote:
What I found interesting is that now Clinton is pushing for more nukes (as the cleaner source).

That'd be awesome!

Nuclear power is the cleanest and as I have stated in past threads Thorium based reactors have the potential to be the best.

**Nostromodamus**

Rosebuddy wrote:
Waaagh_Gonads wrote:
So we returned it to a level that it has been at before?

GO TEAM HUMAN!!!

Modern ecosystems, particularly massive industrial agriculture, weren't around four and a half million years ago.

Yeah, according to so-called "historians" and "scientists"...

**Tannhauser42**

welshhoppo wrote:

But I'll probably be dead by the time this becomes a concern for everyone, but we seriously do need to step up our game.

Which is exactly why we're not stepping up our game. The people in charge have absolutely zero reason to care about the future, because they'll be dead by then.

whembly wrote:
NinthMusketeer wrote:

But on a more serious note what I find most disappointing about this whole thing is how many people in the US, supposedly a country of relatively educated people, still deny global warming basically just because the Republicans say it isn't real.

The argument is whether or not it's caused by humans... not that it isn't happening.

It takes far more denial than you can find in Egypt to believe that all of the crap we've put into the air, water, and ground over the last 200 years has had absolutely zero impact on the planet.

**TheCustomLime**

Well, maybe if people would stop being so squeamish about nuclear power...

**NinthMusketeer**

I think these days its a 5 billion investment to build the plant that scares them off more than anything.

**TheCustomLime**

NinthMusketeer wrote:
I think these days its a 5 billion investment to build the plant that scares them off more than anything.

I never said nuclear power wouldn't cause problems of it's own. But if we replaced most if not all of our coal plants it would reduce CO2 emissions.

Also, probably should stop rainforest destruction.

**godardc**

Ustrello wrote:
whembly wrote:
What I found interesting is that now Clinton is pushing for more nukes (as the cleaner source).

That'd be awesome!

Nuclear power is the cleanest and as I have stated in past threads Thorium based reactors have the potential to be the best.

I guess you aren't aware: it's THE CURRENT YEAR ! You can't be in favour nuclear power ! You have to be a green, wind power lover !

**motyak**

Let's make sure that our posts are actually constructive, thanks.

**Azreal13**

NinthMusketeer wrote:
I think these days its a 5 billion investment to build the plant that scares them off more than anything.

Hinkley C (just up the road from me) is clocking in at £18bn, IIRC.

Part funded by the French and Chinese governments (the French energy firm is part state owned) and with a guarantee that EON will get paid a rate that is something like 10x the going rate of energy per kW/h once it's open and producing.

That amount of compromise, to open a plant whose design is as yet untested, must surely give a government pause, even if I do broadly agree that nuclear is rather demonized and might make a good interim solution while other methods are developed.

**Co'tor Shas**

whembly wrote:
NinthMusketeer wrote:

But on a more serious note what I find most disappointing about this whole thing is how many people in the US, supposedly a country of relatively educated people, still deny global warming basically just because the Republicans say it isn't real.

The argument is whether or not it's caused by humans... not that it isn't happening.

Well, yes, now that is pretty much universally accepted by the scientific community, the R position has changed from "It's not happening," to "It is happening, but it's not our fault."

edit: I'm pretty sure I even had an argument with you where you argued against it's existence.

**Ustrello**

Co'tor Shas wrote:
whembly wrote:
NinthMusketeer wrote:

But on a more serious note what I find most disappointing about this whole thing is how many people in the US, supposedly a country of relatively educated people, still deny global warming basically just because the Republicans say it isn't real.

The argument is whether or not it's caused by humans... not that it isn't happening.

Well, yes, now that is pretty much universally accepted by the scientific community, the R position has changed from "It's not happening," to "It is happening, but it's not our fault."

edit: I'm pretty sure I even had an argument with you where you argued against it's existence.

He did I remember that