IF there was a prize for the most esoteric and stratospherically "out there" theory against human caused climate change, then surely Thomas Watson would be in line for this particular gong.
In an interview in January for the US-based internet radio show "It's Rainmaking Time", this 83-year-old Australian from Victoria told presenter Kim Greenhouse that carbon dioxide had nothing to do with climate change and that instead, natural variations in "magnetism" were responsible.
Watson said: "The term...
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brave, brave GE
Next up!: "There is some evidence that sunlight is involved in photosynthesis."
Total CO2 emissions?
Anybody have a figure on total CO2 emissions since the start of the industrial revolution, or say, about 1850?
1,000 GT CO2 +/-
the World Resources Institute - http://earthtrends.wri.org/text/climate-atmosphere/variable-779.html - has it at about 1,027 gigatonnes for 1990-2002... There are pointers there to original sources - IEA, EIA,The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC). If you want more info - from ~ 1750 to 2004 - check http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/ftp/ndp030/global.1751_2004.ems , but note that there you have to convert from carbon to CO2, which I think is ~ 3.6x, iirc...
In Percent Please GT an MG
In Percent Please GT an MG is such a unrealistic figure to understand.. What is it in % ? ..I ask since you seem to have those figures handy. 1027 GT is what? How big is that compare to the planet natural CO2 emmission from the Ocean and other natural sources?
It's called the carbonn cycle.
You might want to look it up:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/CarbonCycle/carbon_cycle4.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_cycle
But you'll find no comfort for your arguments in it.
The increase in CO2 is aprox 38% over pre-industrial. (280 ppmv to 387 ppmv and climbing)
Currently about half of the CO2 generated by human activity (8.5 to 9.5 Gt per year) is absorbed by natural carbon sinks, the rest is accumulating in the atmosphere at the rate of 2 to 2.5 ppmv each year and accelerating.
Currently the ocean is a net absorber of CO2 by about 2 Gt. The biosphere is also a net absorber....so far.
But as arctic permafrosts melt they are becoming significant emitters. And as the ocean warms it can hold less dissolved CO2, and thus will absorb less CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Global Carbon Project
http://www.globalcarbonproject.org is also a good source for this type of info, either directly or through their links...
Thank you.
Thank you.
Industrial Revolution
1850 is often assumed as the beginning of the IR, but in fact it had been gearing up for about 50 years by then. Tiny steps and not much in the way of emissions yet, but the die was cast. Just a small aside from an historian . . .
Fern Mackenzie
A pattern here?
Fern,
Many historians, history buffs, genealogists, etc., seem to "get it" with respect to our current challenges. Perhaps it's because they're more aware of the shifts that can occur in societies, and not as stuck in a mindview that "what you see is what you get".
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