Forest Dump

I’m going change my format a little bit to provide U.S. government-collected data (by our National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – NOAA) to dispel, in the simplest possible scientific method I can think of, that the current bout of climate change is definitely and unequivocally linked to man-made sources. There is no known source of the massive build-up of carbon dioxide (CO₂₎ and other greenhouse gasses other than man’s rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels. None. However, once that cycle began, the increased use of carbon dioxide, etc. has triggered warming trends that have further unlocked naturally occurring greenhouse gasses that otherwise were locked in frozen and inaccessible areas on earth. Look at these U.S. government charts carefully.

Global average temperature since 1880. This graph from NOAA shows the annual trend in average global air temperature in degrees Celsius, through December 2010. For each year, the range of uncertainty is indicated by the gray vertical bars. The blue line tracks the changes in the trend over time. (Image courtesy NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.)

Monthly mean atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii

The carbon dioxide data (red curve), measured as the mole fraction in dry air, on Mauna Loa constitute the longest record of direct measurements of CO₂ in the atmosphere. They were started by C. David Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in March of 1958 at a facility of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [Keeling, 1976]. NOAA started its own CO₂ measurements in May of 1974, and they have run in parallel with those made by Scripps since then [Thoning, 1989]. The black curve represents the seasonally corrected data.

Data are reported as a dry mole fraction defined as the number of molecules of carbon dioxide divided by the number of molecules of dry air multiplied by one million (ppm).

The massive construction of thousands of new coal-fired plants and the rapid acceleration of consumer-owned cars and trucks began to spread from the traditional sources in the United States and Europe into the growing nations in Africa and Asia… in post WWII world of the 1950s and 60s. CO₂ has been building up since we began constructing and operating massive numbers of industrial plants in the late 19^th century; there are graphs based on indirect evidence – looking at tree rings and carbon build-up – that CO₂ was on the rise with the industrial revolution, but the most recent data was directly and accurately measured starting in 1958. Look at the impact of massive increases in industrial output triggered by the military demands of World War II in the first chart.

It’s an accelerating vicious cycle. As average temperatures rise, ice packs and glaciers melt, and the white reflectiveness of ice is replaced by the darker heat absorptive colors of the underlying water and land, pulling and retaining more heat to accelerate further melting ice. The once frozen Siberian tundra is also melting and releasing a gas (methane) that is 23 times denser and hence more of a greenhouse sealant than mere carbon dioxide.

And the ability of forests to absorb excess CO₂ and turn it into breathable and life-sustaining oxygen is dwindling rapidly: “The trees spanning many of the mountainsides of western Montana glow an earthy red, like a broadleaf forest at the beginning of autumn. But these trees are not supposed to turn red. They are evergreens, falling victim to beetles that used to be controlled in part by bitterly cold winters. As the climate warms, scientists say, that control is no longer happening. Across millions of acres, the pines of the northern and central Rockies are dying, just one among many types of forests that are showing signs of distress these days. From the mountainous Southwest deep into Texas, wildfires raced across parched landscapes this summer, burning millions more acres. In Colorado, at least 15 percent of that state’s spectacular aspen forests have gone into decline because of a lack of water. The devastation extends worldwide. The great euphorbia trees of southern Africa are succumbing to heat and water stress. So are the Atlas cedars of northern Algeria. Fires fed by hot, dry weather are killing enormous stretches of Siberian forest. Eucalyptus trees are succumbing on a large scale to a heat blast in Australia, and the Amazon recently suffered two ‘once a century’ droughts just five years apart, killing many large trees.” Levine Breaking News, October 1^st.

So for the “skeptics” that hold that linkage between man-made greenhouse gasses and global climate change is unproven “theory,” let the generations that will struggle with these catastrophic quality of life changes revile them in history books forever. Politicians unwilling to confront these issues and attempt to minimize the death, destruction and decimation that climate change is and will continue to cause – yes, Rick Perry, particularly in dought-and-fire-infested Texas these days – are most certainly unfit to lead a nation in the 21^st century. This is most certainly not a partisan issue, but the lives of future generations depend heavily on what we do about this problem in the coming years.

I’m Peter Dekom, and sometimes idiotic, un-researched opinions can be exceptionally detrimental to your health.