Re:Research: No rise of atmospheric Co2 fraction in past 160...
by crayz on Thursday December 31, 2009 @11:01AM
(#1024441)
Wow, way to fuck up the headline
No rise in the atmospheric fraction of CO2 - i.e. as we add more, carbon sinks are continuing to pull the same percentage out of the atmosphere as they did previously, according to this new study
The total amount in the atmosphere is still skyrocketing and many scientists question how long the oceans can continue absorbing the CO2(which is causing them to acidify)
I'm no expert in climatology, but the science of other complex systems (e.g. medicine) often produce conflicting studies. Why should climatology be any different?
Re:Research: No rise of atmospheric Co2 fraction in past 160...
by Kadin on Thursday December 31, 2009 @11:32AM
(#1024479)
As others have pointed out, this is very different from saying that atmospheric CO2 levels have not increased. It does not claim that, in actuality far from it.
The gist of the article is about 65% of emitted CO2 is "sunk" into plant and other terrestrial sources. About 45% remains in the atmosphere. That's the "CO2 fraction," really a sort of ratio. That ratio has, apparently, remained about constant.
However, despite the ratio remaining constant, the absolute value of atmospheric CO2 (in ppm) has still increased.
It's interesting if you're putting together a climate model, where you have to make assumptions about the amount of carbon sunk versus remaining airborne, but I'm not sure of the significance to an average person.
No rise in the atmospheric fraction of CO2 - i.e. as we add more, carbon sinks are continuing to pull the same percentage out of the atmosphere as they did previously, according to this new study
The total amount in the atmosphere is still skyrocketing and many scientists question how long the oceans can continue absorbing the CO2(which is causing them to acidify)
I'm no expert in climatology, but the science of other complex systems (e.g. medicine) often produce conflicting studies. Why should climatology be any different?
The gist of the article is about 65% of emitted CO2 is "sunk" into plant and other terrestrial sources. About 45% remains in the atmosphere. That's the "CO2 fraction," really a sort of ratio. That ratio has, apparently, remained about constant.
However, despite the ratio remaining constant, the absolute value of atmospheric CO2 (in ppm) has still increased.
It's interesting if you're putting together a climate model, where you have to make assumptions about the amount of carbon sunk versus remaining airborne, but I'm not sure of the significance to an average person.