C02
gregladen | April 30, 2013Before the release of vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere mainly through the burning of fossil fuels, the atmospheric concentration of this gas was about 300 ppm or a bit more. Soon, that number will be 400 ppm. How soon? Let's see ... it is now Tuesday at about 7pm. Maybe mid morning tomorrow? Maybe early next week? In fact, there have been one or two readings over the last few weeks that have registered above the 400 ppm mark.
So, this is important because humans have officially increased the concentration of this key greenhouse gas by a third. That's a big deal.
Having said that, I…
sastyk | September 26, 2011
It won't be news to most of my readership, but it is worth noting that the one thing that seems to be certain about climate change is that the 2007 IPCC report understated things. Sigh.
Sharon
sastyk | March 6, 2011The theory, of course, is that eventually an inflection point in renewable production *might* be achievable, after which point total gobal energy consumption would decline. The fact, unfortunately, is that we're nowhere near achieving such an inflection point, as Tad Patzek carefully points out:
The rate of energy use and carbon dioxide emissions are virtually identical and have grown exponentially over the last 40 years.
The impact of large dams and nuclear power plants has been barely visible, and disappeared by 2007.
The renewable energy sources, wind turbines, biomass cogeneration, and…