CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 years

[Gavin A]

Atmospheric CO2 concentrations broke through the 400ppm threshold for the first time in 800,000 years in May at 7 monitoring stations around the Arctic circle, according to an announcement from NOAA.“The northern sites in our monitoring network tell us what is coming soon to the globe as a whole. We will likely see global average CO2 concentrations reach 400 ppm about 2016."
Pieter Tans, an atmospheric scientist with NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL)
Average global atmospheric CO2 concentrations are also predicted to rise above 400ppm by 2016, from around 280ppm prior to the industrial revolution, and 390.4ppm in 2011.

I had to have a little rant about this landmark being passed on our blog, as this is far far earlier than anyone thought even vaguely possibly back in the 90's when I was studying climate change science and policy.

It's an absolute disgrace that the rate that atmospheric CO2 concentrations is rising increased significantly last decade after falling slightly in the 90s as the first wave of CO2 reduction measures kicked in.

Our politicians have been shown to be all mouth and no trousers on this issue, with any minor gains we've made in this country being massively offset by the amount of carbon emissions we've exported to china etc. as successive governments have continued to shift all the heavy industry out of this country.

Personally I hope that one day they'll be properly held to account for their inactivity on this issue, with punishment to fit the crime against humanity that they will have been shown to have perpetrated.



Full article - CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 years

 

[sambotc]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

Might help if they stopped cutting down all the tree's as well

 

[telectrix]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

and stop cows farting.

 

[sambotc]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

Thought cows farted methane not co2? Either way it's all hot air if you ask me :leaving:

 

[kingeri]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

It's ludicrous when we have so much clean and free energy available to us, and the technology to harvest it, that we still insist on burning our way through the planet's fossil fuels. And we're supposed to be the intelligent species here.

 

[sambotc]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

Free energy that costs a lot of money to harvest though, personally I think what is more ridiculous is that we are decimating one of the earths natural resources that converts co2 into o2 without replacing them responsibly. Not to mention the other effects it has on wildlife etc

Just to add i'm not a greenpeace member or a tree hugger, just a realist

 

[Earthstore]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

I have said this before but here I go again...
The problem is money, lots of money, every time you fill up your van you give about £50 to the government, I do the same, look at all the cars, vans and lorries on the roads today, all giving their £50's to the government, so they can spend it wisely, by giving it to other countries, or the lazy sods that do not work, or build duck houses, or however they see fit, this also applies to the fuel in our houses and work places, so why would they really want us all producing free green energy?
What would all the lazy sods and ducks do without all this money?
it will happen though, and things are changing, it is just a shame that politics have to be involved because of the reasons above.
These are just my thoughts, but when you have to follow the politics almost daily, and you look at the wider picture, you do get a feel of what is really going on.

 

[dansk]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

At the end of the day the planet is screwed, i find installing solar a double edge sword, it saves carbon, but how much carbon is produced during manufacture and shipping half way around the globe.

 

[Earthstore]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

At the end of the day the planet is screwed, i find installing solar a double edge sword, it saves carbon, but how much carbon is produced during manufacture and shipping half way around the globe.

Said to be carbon neutral in 2-3years of service, not too sure how they calculate this, but that is what I have read.

 

[Gavin A]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

At the end of the day the planet is screwed, i find installing solar a double edge sword, it saves carbon, but how much carbon is produced during manufacture and shipping half way around the globe.

energy return on investment should usually be in the 8-12:1 region, depending how long the solar stays up for it could be a lot higher than that.

It does depend quite a bit on how much diesel is used delivering and installing the kit, scaffolding etc, which is where local installs are a advantage.

 

[SolarCity]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

Personally I hope that one day they'll be properly held to account for their inactivity on this issue, with punishment to fit the crime against humanity that they will have been shown to have perpetrated.

I don't think I've ever agreed with a point more on this forum than I do with this.

 

[Strima]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

The problem is that most western countries have reduced their emissions only to be taken over by far eastern countries such as India and China (other countries available), until they sort their acts out nothing will change.

 

[SolarCity]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

The problem is that most western countries have reduced their emissions only to be taken over by far eastern countries such as India and China (other countries available), until they sort their acts out nothing will change.

But not enough. Britain's effort has been utterly pathetic.

We can start worrying about India and China when we've sorted our own mess out.

 

[Gavin A]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

The problem is that most western countries have reduced their emissions only to be taken over by far eastern countries such as India and China (other countries available), until they sort their acts out nothing will change.

more to the point that we've exported our emissions to china and india along with our heavy industry, ie a large percentage of china and india's emmissions stem from making stuff that they then export to us for us to consume.

This is all down to our politicians obsession with neoliberalist globalisation over the last 30 years, along with them actually being quite happy to destroy our industry and even happier to make it seem like we're doing good things to reduce our own emissions. Also, if the US had joined the kyoto agreement in the 90's, then the world would have been in a much better position to renogotiate it in the 2000's once China and Inidia's emissions had risen (as they were allowed to under kyoto).

FWIW, the only way the UK managed to achieve it's CO2 reduction target for 2010 (on top of exporting a lot of it) was via the massive recession of 2008. Without this we'd have missed our CO2 targets by a long way.

 

[Gavin A]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

or to put it another way, if we weren't signatories to the WTO agreements, then we would have the option to influence the carbon emissions of those countries supplying goods to us by putting a carbon tax on high carbon imports or similar.

WTO bans any country from doing anything like that, the only thing that matters under WTO is free trade, and anything that gets in the way of free trade such as environmental or social concerns... well they just don't count, and governments will be fined severely if they do anything that might be seen as a restriction on free trade even if it's for well justified environmental reasons.

 

[Earthstore]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

What happened with the CRS (Carbon Reduction Scheme) if that was what it was called? Was it September 2011?
Where all large users of energy had to document their carbon footprint or they would get a large fine, then it was going to be rolled out to smaller businesses.

Not heard much of this recently...

 

[babba]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

Thanks for the Big picture Gav. Great post on what is really important and does the greenes government EVER care do they fc uk.
BIG 6, BIG OIL are the real winners in the race to the end. Hope planet earth has enough sense to run out of natural resores as we call them ?.. because if shes waiting for man unkind to see the light, shes doomed

 

[Gavin A]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

What happened with the CRS (Carbon Reduction Scheme) if that was what it was called? Was it September 2011?
Where all large users of energy had to document their carbon footprint or they would get a large fine, then it was going to be rolled out to smaller businesses.

Not heard much of this recently...

carbon reduction commitment?

the original scheme was actually quite good. It only applied to very big energy users, and was actually cost neutral over all, as IIRC it ranks all companies in order of their carbon reduction levels, the worst performers would then pay into the scheme, and the best performance would get paid from the scheme to reward them for their carbon saving efforts, so net financial impact on uk business would have been nil.

What actually happened was that DECC decided to steal the money from the scheme after a lot of companies had already spent a lot of money making improvements, so that now it's just a straight carbon tax on those worst performances, and the best performance just get to avoid some of that tax... net result a massive drain on UK business.

IIRC the CRC money basically was taken by decc and effectively went to fund the RHI scheme, and nuclear decommissioning authority budget increase.

Basically there seems to be nothing that DECC haven't completely cocked up, and if there is then we can be fairly sure they'll move on to cocking that right up as well just as soon as they can get round to it.

 

[Earthstore]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

Thanks Gavin, CRC, I remembered after I had posted it.

They kept that quiet then, still, I guess that is politics.
This has been the first thing that i have done in my life that is run by politics, and it is truly rotton, (being polite there).

 

[dansk]

Re: CO2 concentrations break through the 400ppm barrier for first time in 800,000 yea

Thanks Gavin, CRC, I remembered after I had posted it.

They kept that quiet then, still, I guess that is politics.
This has been the first thing that i have done in my life that is run by politics, and it is truly rotton, (being polite there).

same here,