CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate

Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by _ph_ on Monday October 24, 2016 @10:23AM (#12779023)

While this diagram shows, that the current CO2 content is lower than in many historic phases of the earth climate, this has little impact on the seriousness of our current situation. The biggest problem we have with the change of the CO2 content of the atmosphere is the speed by which it changes, and consequently the speed of the warming up. Eco systems change way quicker than they can adapt too. And dying eco systems and their input on our life are the big problem humanity is facing in the next 100 years.

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by z_mollusk on Monday October 24, 2016 @11:02AM (#12779420)

Ecosystems are "greening." The increased amount of CO2 has led to rapid vegetation growth. CO2 is essentially plant fuel.

http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/carbon-dioxide-fert...

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by the8472 on Monday October 24, 2016 @11:11AM (#12779489)

That doesn't mean much if the carbon does not get bound to the soil. If plants just take up CO2, die, release it again then it stairs in the atmosphere. This applies to crops and rain forests, algae.

Only few systems tend to fix the CO2 over long periods of time, such as boreal forests or permafrost tundra. And guess which ecosystems are retreating due to global warming and releasing their previously fixed CO2?

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by z_mollusk on Monday October 24, 2016 @11:31AM (#12779676)

New plants will replace the dead plants and utilize the replaced CO2. Binding CO2 to the soil would be optimal, but I fail to see how the lifespan of plants is relevant here.

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by the8472 on Monday October 24, 2016 @12:18PM (#12780180)

Because plants are subject to changing climate too. If regions get drier then all that CO2 will get released in a short amount of time. This is like technical debt. It's released CO2 that does not affect the climate yet but could do so in the future due to feedback loops.

And even if that doesn't happen, it's only 25% of the released CO2. 50% are still warming the climate and another 25% are still acidifying the oceans. So that's a pretty high cost for a few greener forests.

And then there is the issue that increased CO2 levels mostly increase the complex carbohydrate contents in plants. They do not produce more proteins since they need nitrogen for that. Which may actually make things worse for the foodchain. E.g. it decreases the nutritional value of pollen, which is a problem for bees.

So there is really not much positive value in there.

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by agumonkey on Monday October 24, 2016 @10:39AM (#12779173)

I can't help but to think that it will solve the problem by putting pressure on its source, aka Humans.

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by sinxoveretothex on Monday October 24, 2016 @10:56AM (#12779352)

Well, if by that you mean that people dying in countries which are low polluters happen to belong to the same species as the biggest polluters, then yes.

But in the grand scheme of things, we can't rely on such a mechanism, because the consequences are not proportional to the causal actions.

As an example, ask yourself this: what proportion of people would be ready to, say, pay twice as much for electricity if it meant that 1 million people/year less would die in some African country?

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by agumonkey on Monday October 24, 2016 @11:43AM (#12779817)

Worse part is that I knew that. Please forgive my impatient comment.

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by briandear on Monday October 24, 2016 @10:51AM (#12779295)

Are humans the primary source? Would love a reputable citation.

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by sinxoveretothex on Monday October 24, 2016 @11:12AM (#12779496)

Humans are not the primary source in the tricky sense that someone looking to deny the evidence couldn't deny.

But they are the primary source of the net emissions or, in other words, the increase of CO2 levels.

It's a bit like if your neighbor produces just enough grain for a year's worth of food for his family of 10 and you steal just enough for yourself. Technically, you aren't the primary source of the decrease in food, but you are the primary (and only) source of the fact that your neighbor's food supply are lower than needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWXoRSIxyIU

http://whatsyourimpact.org/greenhouse-gases/carbon-dioxide-e...

https://www.skepticalscience.com/human-co2-smaller-than-natu...

https://www.netl.doe.gov/research/coal/carbon-storage/carbon...

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by idlewords on Monday October 24, 2016 @11:11AM (#12779493)

You can prove it to yourself by asking what happened to all the carbon in coal and oil extracted since the 18th century. It tracks the rise in atmospheric CO2, as you would expect, since we burned it.

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Re:CO2 levels mark 'new era' in the world's changing climate by TillE on Monday October 24, 2016 @04:25PM (#12782535)

I've been pointing this out to obstinate nerds for years. This really isn't complicated: human-generated CO2 does not magically disappear, and we know exactly how it interacts with infrared radiation. Just put these two simple facts together.

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