| -Caveat Lector-
In a message dated 8/24/2004 1:13:22 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
* "The carbon that's gone into coal, oil and natural gas took hundreds Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om |
--- Begin Message ----Caveat Lector- * "The carbon that's gone into coal, oil and natural gas took hundreds * of millions of years to accumulate," Running said. "But we will * release it all back into the atmosphere in just 200 years. That is the * big experiment. * * "What happens when we release carbon dioxide a million times faster * than it was laid down on the earth?"[Do we really want to be the subjects of an experiment just so ExxonMobilBush can get richer? -ED] - - - Global warming expert shares 50 years of research By SHERRY DEVLIN of the Missoulian Homo sapiens - the self-proclaimed "wise ones" - have the ability to do something about global warming, but they are not [at least, unlike Europe, Japan, etc, at least not at the politician level, in the U.S. -ED] yet convinced it is necessary, the nation's pre-eminent biophysicist said Wednesday. And that makes it difficult for Dave Keeling to express much hope for humankind. "The only kind of optimism possible is at the same level as religion," Keeling said during a talk at the University of Montana. "I have to have faith that we can pull this off." Keeling, a professor of oceanography at Scripps Institution in La Jolla, Calif., is not a religious man, though, so his presentation focused primarily on what he knows after nearly 50 years of monitoring carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. It was Keeling who pioneered the measurement of atmospheric carbon dioxide from atop Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano in 1955. First, he established the baseline level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere - what would be there if humans were not burning fossil fuels. Then he showed the increase in CO2 levels since the Industrial Revolution. As of this past winter, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was more than one-third higher than the pre-industrial level. And it increases every year, Keeling told participants in a three-day conference of scientists who are monitoring climate change via satellite-based software developed at UM. Keeling's work was the foundation, said Steve Running, the UM professor whose research team designed software for NASA's $1.3 billion Terra satellite, part of the $7 billion Earth Observing System. "We didn't really even see the entire globe until about 1982," Running said. "Dave Keeling's Mauna Loa record gave us 20 years' warning that humans could - and do - have a global impact. "His work was the first real evidence we had." The "Keeling curve" shows the jagged, but ever-higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere, testimony to the ever-increasing use of fossil fuels and the gradual warming of the earth. Now, scientists using the Terra satellite's earth science monitoring equipment are beginning to document the ways in which life on earth are changing. "The carbon that's gone into coal, oil and natural gas took hundreds of millions of years to accumulate," Running said. "But we will release it all back into the atmosphere in just 200 years. That is the big experiment. "What happens when we release carbon dioxide a million times faster than it was laid down on the earth?" There are now 372 parts per million (by volume) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; the pre-industrial level was 277 ppm. [Scary note, because not many months ago they announced that in 2003 alone it went up by a huge 3ppm from 366 to 369 during 2003...normally it had gone up by 1 or 2 parts per million in a year.. Now that was in March 2004 when they told us it went up from 366 to 369, see http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0328-08.htm and our post "CENSORED in the US? UK report on Global Warming Upwards Spiral " But now they say it is 372? Meaning 2004 is not even over and we are already 3 ppm higher than 379? Is anyone awake at the wheel? See links for action at bottom -ED] "And we could easily get to 1,000 ppm or 1,500 ppm in the years ahead," Running said. Of course, carbon dioxide is not the issue, he added. "It's the impact of carbon dioxide on climate." [see "oceans becoming more acidic" papers by scientists recently posted on usenet...but in general his statement is correct -ED] And while the global average temperature has increased by one degree, "that's the least of it," Running said. Every day, the data collected by Terra provides new evidence of global climate change. "We are starting to see very tangible ecological examples, not just computer models and projections," Running said. Glaciers are receding, winter snowpacks are melting more quickly, summers are drier in the northern Rocky Mountains, wildfires are larger and hotter. "People actually find some of the changes pleasant," he said. "We have wineries in this part of the world, where that just wasn't possible 20 years ago. Our gardens yield produce earlier and longer. "I try to stay value-neutral when looking at these trends, because the trends are what's important - because they are real." Among scientists, global warming is no longer a question, said Keeling. "I've even come to accept it in the last five or six years," he said. "The change has been greater than what would naturally occur." "A large part of the educated world is pretty concerned," said Keeling, who has a home in Hamilton. "The European community and Japan are very concerned." Only the United States is out of touch with the reality, he said. Politicians, the media and the general public simply haven't decided that global warming is real, or that it's dangerous. But what to do? "I don't know," Keeling said. "Somehow or another, we still have a chance to do something. But we need the public's support, and the politicians.' " At 76, Keeling is steering clear of politics. "I've been successful because I stayed off just about every committee there is," he told scientists at the UM conference, "and I'm not inclined to change." Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2004/08/19/news/local/news02.txt ============= DON'T MOURN, ACT! WEBSITES FOR ACTION: http://www.greenhousenet.org/ http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp http://www.solarcatalyst.com/ Overview and local actions you can take: http://www.PostCarbon.org ============= = = = = STILL FEELING LIKE THE MAINSTREAM U.S. CORPORATE MEDIA IS GIVING A FULL HONEST PICTURE OF WHAT'S GOING ON? = = = = Daily online radio show, news reporting: www.DemocracyNow.org More news: UseNet's misc.activism.progressive (moderated) = = = = Sorry, we cannot read/reply to most usenet posts but welcome email For more information: http://EconomicDemocracy.org/wtc/ (peace) And http://EconomicDemocracy.org/ (general) ** ANTI-SPAM EMAIL NOTE: For email "info" and "map" don't work. Email instead ** to m-a-i-l-m-a-i-l (without the dashes) at economicdemocracy.org www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
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