As Scott Pruitt Denies Climate Science, Atmospheric CO2 Rises At A Record Rate
Even as Scott Pruitt denies carbon dioxide’s role in fueling climate change, the NOAA has revealed that atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gas have been increasing at an “unprecedented” rate. Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters
“As we twiddle our thumbs, CO2 just keeps going up and up.”
“As we twiddle our thumbs, CO2 just keeps going up and up [ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atmospheric-carbon-dioxide-hits-record-levels/ ],” Ralph Keeling, director of the Scripps Institute for Oceanography’s carbon dioxide monitoring program, told Scientific American Tuesday. Climate scientists have long agreed that the carbon dioxide that humans pump into the atmosphere is the primary driver of climate change, he added.
Atmospheric CO2 levels measured at the Mauna Loa Baseline Atmospheric Observatory [ https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/mlo/ ] in Hawaii, the world’s marquee site for carbon dioxide monitoring, soared by a record-breaking 3 parts per million in both 2015 and 2016, according to data that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released on Friday.
Carbon dioxide concentrations measured at the facility hit 405.1 parts per million last year, the agency said, adding that similar observations had been recorded at dozens of other sites all over the world.
Pieter Tans, lead scientist at NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, said that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have increased at least 2 parts per million for the five consecutive years - an “unprecedented” growth rate.
Two years later, the world reached another grim benchmark. NOAA said the monthly global average concentration [ http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends ] of CO2 had surpassed 400 parts per million for the first time. A year after that, scientists said global CO2 levels would likely not fall below 400 parts per million - perhaps ever again [ http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends ].
Protesters chant during a rally against climate change in San Diego, California, on Feb. 21, 2017. SANDY HUFFAKER/Getty Images
In the 10,000 years or so before the Industrial Revolution [ http://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution ], atmospheric carbon dioxide levels had averaged about 280 parts per million. Since then, however, the concentration of CO2 has skyrocketed, ballooning from about 300 parts per million in 1960 to the current astronomical level.
“The momentum we’re seeing right now, going upwards, I think is going to easily carry us through 450 parts per million [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/22/carbon-dioxide-climate-change_n_5187844.html ],” Keeling told the The Huffington Post in an earlier interview. “And then I would say even stabilizing before 500 parts per million is probably not going to be very easy.”
In fact, even if emissions somehow plummeted to zero tomorrow, it would still take many years for the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere to start tapering.
EPA chief Scott Pruitt said this month that he “would not agree” that carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming. Bloomberg/Getty Images
“I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see,” the EPA chief told CNBC [ http://www.cnbc.com/2017/03/09/epa-chief-scott-pruitt.html ]. “We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis.”
“Just as there is no escaping gravity when one steps off a cliff, there is no escaping the warming that follows when we add extra carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the atmosphere,” said the letter [ https://www.dropbox.com/s/x73rror6yxh779o/scientists_letter_Pruitt_20170313.pdf?dl=0 ], signed by researchers from Harvard University, Stanford University, Princeton University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, among others.
“{If} we continue to increase the atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases, the Earth will continue to heat up, with serious consequences for economies and ecosystems across the globe,” the scientists added.
Published on Mar 15, 2017 by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
The author and science communicator defends his rationale for demoting Pluto's status, saying the heavenly body had no place being designated a planet to begin with.
Earth's Oceans Are Warming 13 Percent Faster than Thought March 13, 2017 [...] ... One main outcome of the study is that it shows we are warming about 13% faster than we previously thought. Not only that but the warming has accelerated. The warming rate from 1992 is almost twice as great as the warming rate from 1960. Moreover, it is only since about 1990 that the warming has penetrated to depths below about 700 meters. [...] http://www.sci-tech-today.com/story.xhtml?story_id=100005LXSPPS
Improved estimates of ocean heat content from 1960 to 2015 Science Advances 10 Mar 2017: Vol. 3, no. 3, e1601545 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1601545 Abstract Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) drives the ongoing global warming and can best be assessed across the historical record (that is, since 1960) from ocean heat content (OHC) changes. An accurate assessment of OHC is a challenge, mainly because of insufficient and irregular data coverage. We provide updated OHC estimates with the goal of minimizing associated sampling error. We performed a subsample test, in which subsets of data during the data-rich Argo era are colocated with locations of earlier ocean observations, to quantify this error. Our results provide a new OHC estimate with an unbiased mean sampling error and with variability on decadal and multidecadal time scales (signal) that can be reliably distinguished from sampling error (noise) with signal-to-noise ratios higher than 3. The inferred integrated EEI is greater than that reported in previous assessments and is consistent with a reconstruction of the radiative imbalance at the top of atmosphere starting in 1985. We found that changes in OHC are relatively small before about 1980; since then, OHC has increased fairly steadily and, since 1990, has increasingly involved deeper layers of the ocean. In addition, OHC changes in six major oceans are reliable on decadal time scales. All ocean basins examined have experienced significant warming since 1998, with the greatest warming in the southern oceans, the tropical/subtropical Pacific Ocean, and the tropical/subtropical Atlantic Ocean. This new look at OHC and EEI changes over time provides greater confidence than previously possible, and the data sets produced are a valuable resource for further study. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/3/e1601545 , full text http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/3/e1601545.full
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Interior Department to withdraw Obama-era fracking rule, filings reveal Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, extracts oil and gas from the Monterey Shale formation near Buttonwillow, Calif., in March 2014. March 15, 2017 The Trump administration plans to withdraw and rewrite a 2015 rule aimed at limiting hydraulic fracturing [ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/22/federal-judge-says-obama-administration-lacks-authority-to-halt-fracking-on-public-lands/ ], or “fracking,” on public lands, the Interior Department indicated in court filings Wednesday. The move to rescind the 2015 regulation, which has been stayed in federal court, represents the latest effort by the new administration to ease restraints on oil and gas production in the United States. Interior’s Bureau of Land Management issued the rule in an effort to minimize the risk of water contamination through the practice, which involves injecting a mix of chemicals and water at high pressure into underground rock formations to force out oil and gas. Under the proposal, companies that drill on federal and tribal lands would be subject to stricter design standards for wells and for holding tanks and ponds where liquid wastes are stored. They also would be forced to report which chemicals they were pumping into the ground. But last June, U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl in Wyoming ruled that Interior had exceeded its congressional mandate in choosing to regulate the controversial drilling practice. While Obama administration officials appealed that decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, the appeals court asked BLM on March 9 if the agency’s position had changed now that Trump is in office. On Wednesday, Justice Department lawyers representing Interior and BLM asked the court to “continue the oral argument and hold these appeals in abeyance pending a new rulemaking” on the issue. The attorneys noted that Interior officials were already reviewing the regulation to mesh with Trump’s agenda. “As part of this process, the Department has begun reviewing the 2015 Final Rule (and all guidance issued pursuant thereto) for consistency with the policies and priorities of the new Administration,” the motion reads. “This initial review has revealed that the 2015 Final Rule does not reflect those policies and priorities.” [...] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/15/interior-department-to-withdraw-obama-era-fracking-rule-filings-reveal/ [with comments]
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Arctic sea ice, Eurasia snow, and extreme winter haze in China Science Advances 15 Mar 2017: Vol. 3, no. 3, e1602751 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1602751 Abstract The East China Plains (ECP) region experienced the worst haze pollution on record for January in 2013. We show that the unprecedented haze event is due to the extremely poor ventilation conditions, which had not been seen in the preceding three decades. Statistical analysis suggests that the extremely poor ventilation conditions are linked to Arctic sea ice loss in the preceding autumn and extensive boreal snowfall in the earlier winter. We identify the regional circulation mode that leads to extremely poor ventilation over the ECP region. Climate model simulations indicate that boreal cryospheric forcing enhances the regional circulation mode of poor ventilation in the ECP region and provides conducive conditions for extreme haze such as that of 2013. Consequently, extreme haze events in winter will likely occur at a higher frequency in China as a result of the changing boreal cryosphere, posing difficult challenges for winter haze mitigation but providing a strong incentive for greenhouse gas emission reduction. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/3/e1602751 , full text http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/3/e1602751.full
Monsanto Weed Killer Roundup Faces New Doubts on Safety in Unsealed Documents A scanning machine illuminating a bottle of Roundup, a weed killer, as it moved along a production line at a facility in Antwerp, Belgium, owned by Monsanto. MARCH 14, 2017 https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/14/business/monsanto-roundup-safety-lawsuit.html [with comments]
Watch out: Mammals shrink when Earth heats up, study says In this photo provided by Abigail D'Ambrosia Carroll, an Arenahippus jaw fragment (with second and third molars), as discovered in field. Global warming often leads to global shrinking for mammals, like us, a new study suggests. At least twice before in Earth's history, when carbon dioxide levels soared and temperatures spiked, mammals shriveled in size, including our earliest primate ancestor, according to a new study based on fossil teeth found in Wyoming. And the study's chief author said it could be a glimpse of a smaller mammal future under even faster man-made warning that's going on now. In this artist rendering provided by the Florida Museum of Natural History, illustration by Danielle Byerley shows a comparison of a Sifrhippus sandrae, right, with a modern Morgan horse that stands about 5 feet tall at the shoulder and weighs about 1,000 pounds. Three different species shrank noticeably about 54 million years ago when the planet suddenly heated up. One of them—an early, compact horse—got 14 percent smaller, going from about 17 pounds (7.7 kilograms) to 14.6 pounds (6.6 kilograms), according to an analysis of fossil teeth in Wednesday's journal Science Advances. "These guys were probably about the size of maybe a dog, then they dwarfed," said D'Ambrosia. "They may have gone down to the size of a cat." March 15, 2017 https://phys.org/news/2017-03-mammals-earth.html [with comments] [AP original at http://bigstory.ap.org/article/a0e131ee93f64e84807fef4b719ff32c/watch-out-mammals-shrink-when-earth-heats-study-says ]
Repetitive mammalian dwarfing during ancient greenhouse warming events Science Advances 15 Mar 2017: Vol. 3, no. 3, e1601430 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1601430 Abstract Abrupt perturbations of the global carbon cycle during the early Eocene are associated with rapid global warming events, which are analogous in many ways to present greenhouse warming. Mammal dwarfing has been observed, along with other changes in community structure, during the largest of these ancient global warming events, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum [PETM; ~56 million years ago (Ma)]. We show that mammalian dwarfing accompanied the subsequent, smaller-magnitude warming event known as Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 [ETM2 (~53 Ma)]. Statistically significant decrease in body size during ETM2 is observed in two of four taxonomic groups analyzed in this study and is most clearly observed in early equids (horses). During ETM2, the best-sampled lineage of equids decreased in size by ~14%, as opposed to ~30% during the PETM. Thus, dwarfing appears to be a common evolutionary response of some mammals during past global warming events, and the extent of dwarfing seems related to the magnitude of the event. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/3/e1601430 , full text http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/3/e1601430.full
How global warming leads to tiny horses and other shrinking mammals Field location within the McCullough Peaks region of the Bighorn Basin where scientists discovered evidence of mammal dwarfing caused by global warming. Fossil teeth are often found eroding out of the hills and slopes here. March 15, 2017 http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/global-warming-leads-tiny-horses-shrinking-mammals/
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