Climate change
CARBON DIOXIDE
If we were to stop all fossil fuel burning today it would take a thousand years for the existing CO2 to be absorbed. David Suzuki
Politicians talking about a CO2 level of 450 parts per million are crazy. The range that the planet has developed life in over the past three million years is between 180ppm and 280ppm. We are currently at 360ppm and climbing. How can we say that we will stabilise the environment when the world has not experienced it for over three million years?
The 1 degree centigrade temperature increase that many people refer to is an average. The range of temperatures in some areas has increase many time more than this. In many ways this means the equatorial region is expanding north and south, and apart from losing a number of islands to the rising ocean, it will create a new inhabitable zone on the equator.
(One degree means the extreme weather changes that we are experience and a probable ocean level rise of at least a metre. Two degrees means extreme climate change, starvation, massive ice melts in some areas resulting is pacific islands disappearing. Three degrees means human anialation.)
At the lower end of this scale, this means that these island people, now refugees, will want to go somewhere. The will need food and the ability to contribute either directly or indirectly to their survival. This will add to the existing food demand in those countries. Al Gore
The Murray Darling system in Australia is a massive river system that relies on being flushed and topped up periodically. In the past paddle wheelers used to travel the system towing barges, moving freightand generally working a large river system. Over the past hundred years we have seen that system come to death's door. We extract water for town supplies and irrigation. We have put in locks and dams that control levels and reduce the flushing effect. The outlet for the system, Lake Alexandrina, has not had a good flow for decades.
And we still argue about how much water we can take out for irrigation and we rely on this area for supplying food to our ever increasing population.
The climate is changing and warming. Current figures show that the scientific estimates have been overly conservative. For example the Greenland ice melt is happening much faster than predicted. Other than the sea level rise of several metres that this will cause and the general devastation to the pacific islands, the last time the a large flushing of fresh water entered that part of the Atlantic ocean, it stopped a natural ocean current called the "Atlantic Conveyor." The result was a 900 year ice age for what we now call Europe.
Al Gore
We also need to keep the planetary lungs working. This means keeping existing forests for CO2 absorption. But currently they are disappearing at the rate of several acres per second, 24 hours a day. In many cases the CO2 that is stored in the trees is being released as part of the clearing process through burning. The smoke haze also has a blanket warming effect in a similar to cloud cover. ABC Science Show
Smoke
haze over indonesian fires set by locals as part of land clearing. They say
they have to do it for their own survival. The smoke represented around 25%
of the CO2 pollution for that year
In Greenland farmers are happy that their ice sheet is melting as each year they regain farmland they have not been able to access in their living history. But what is the bigger picture. Around the world, snow lines and tree lines are climbing up the ever shrinking mountains. This is allowing insects like mosquitoes to start visiting cities that were once unavailable to the disease laden bugs.
This is a compilation of ideas and notes compiled by Garnett Znidaric who has been observing the evolving situation for more than thirty years. Send comments to info@gzrecord.com |