CO2 Levels In Air Officially Exceed The Safe Zone

[stromboli]

https://www.upworthy.com/for-the-first-time-in-human-history-global-co2-levels-have-exceeded-the-safe-zone-permanently?c=huf1

According to measurements from the Scripps Mauna Lua Observatory in Hawaii, the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has risen above 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in 3 million years.

And sadly, it will never drop down again as long as any of us are living.

For reference, CO2 levels clocked in around 275 ppm before the Industrial Revolution and scientists have been urging us for years to get things down to 350 ppm in order to stop temperatures from rising even more and damaging the planet.

So I mean, sure, there is a natural cycle to carbon levels. Note the word "natural" â€" digging up and burning fossil fuels is not natural, especially at the rate we've been doing it.
We've spent the last few decades pumping an additional two ppm of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. And that's above and beyond the constraints of that natural cycle.
Also worth noting: The last time CO2 levels were consistently over 400 ppm? Global temperatures were about three degrees higher; the polar ice caps melted, causing sea levels to rise about 30 feet from where they are right now; and camels lived in the Arctic region.

And speaking of cycles...
The Earth actually passed that 400 ppm milestone back in May, before dipping back down to 398.2 ppm in July. Why the dip? That's just due to the seasonal increase of plant life in the Northern Hemisphere.

As you might recall from middle school science class, plants love CO2. That's why we get along with them so well; it's a mutually beneficial relationship.

But now, winter is coming and the plants are dead and CO2 levels are back up to 400 ppm. ¯\_(ãƒ,,)_/¯
Since CO2 stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, and we're still increasing CO2 levels by two ppm every year â€" well, it's safe to say we won't see another atmosphere in that safe zone below 400 ppm as long as any of us are alive.

Now if only we had more trees to eat up all that extra CO2...
Unfortunately, we're a little preoccupied with cutting our trees down. Industrial deforestation accounts for 23% of man-made carbon emissions, or 17% of our total carbon increase over the last 100 years.

There's also the fact that the influx of wildfires across the planet is directly related to the increase in global temperatures.

To recap: We're burning fossil fuels to cut down trees that would otherwise eat the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which in turn causes global temperatures to rise, which leads to the forests combusting, which results in fewer trees to eat the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which...
While our air quality won't get any better within our own lifetimes, we can still make it better for the next generation.
If you care about your children, and your children's children, and their children's children, and so on, sign this petition to support the EPA and the Clean Power Plan.

If we all work together, we could build a brighter future that returns our planet to those natural cycles that worked so well for so long.

Hey it's all good. Jesus is coming!

[josephpalazzo]

Not all is dire straight. New innovation reveals a machine that can eat up CO2.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1023315/Machine-clean-greenhouse-gas-breakthrough-war-global-warming-say-scientists.html

[Atheon]

I point my finger at the Republicans and say FUCK YOU.

[Shiranu]

Yey.

[stromboli]

[doorknob]

I'm sure we humans will find an irritating way to survive mean while killing the rest of the planet.

Not that I'm against humans surviving just exhausting all the resources.

[Baruch]

I'm sure we humans will find an irritating way to survive mean while killing the rest of the planet.

Not that I'm against humans surviving just exhausting all the resources.

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

Supposedly the last standing structures would be the Pyramids in Egypt.

[trdsf]

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

Supposedly the last standing structures would be the Pyramids in Egypt.

They're expected to be swallowed up by sand within 10,000 years, so they'll still be there, but they won't be immediately evident.  Mount Rushmore will still be recognizable, though, and should be for millennia beyond that, but will be gone eventually too.  The granite weathers very well, though.  I think the long estimate is a couple million years, but I'd be surprised if it was more than a hundred thousand between the long-range estimates for large asteroid impacts, and the Yellowstone supervolcano.  If an ice age gets triggered, kiss the four dead white guys goodbye.

[stromboli]

Hey its all good. Science will save us (cough).

[Baruch]

Hey its all good. Science will save us (cough).

Notice how when science saves us, we end up as half human half sterile female worker bees singing the praises of our Queen ;-)  There are no utopias.  At best we can hope for a dystopia.

[Hydra009]

Hey its all good. Science will save us (cough).

But not us specifically.  Maybe our currently nonexistent descendants a few generations after us.  Maybe.  But not us.

Until then, let's all turn up the AC, buy some Hummers, and basically do business as usual until we incur so much drastic climate changes that our way of life almost implodes.

[Baruch]

But not us specifically.  Maybe our currently nonexistent descendants a few generations after us.  Maybe.  But not us.

Until then, let's all turn up the AC, buy some Hummers, and basically do business as usual until we incur so much drastic climate changes that our way of life almost implodes.

Sounds good to me.  Let the good times role (ala Reagan).  Nobody has ever accused humanity of being a .. responsible species.  And that climate change meeting in Paris ... it is politicians all the way down.  No doubt they are actually planning Agenda 21 or the equivalent.  This is what happens when the 1% believe their own propaganda ... see Martin Buber in "I & Thou" ... when you dehumanize others ... as cattle ... bad things happen.

[josephpalazzo]

Hey its all good. Science will save us (cough).

It's not science that will save us but people using science, if only they are willing to do the hard part. The thing is: people are not very well suited to think in long terms. So there.

[Baruch]

It's not science that will save us but people using science, if only they are willing to do the hard part. The thing is: people are not very well suited to think in long terms. So there.

Manifest destiny or inevitability are bad ideas ... that means we don't have to lift a finger ;-(