Published on AL.co on June 28, 2014 at 6:00 AM
There was an important number in the news last month – 400.
You probably didn't hear about it. It's one of those things that is important but not exciting. No cat videos about the number 400 were made. It's not an update to the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans nor a reference to Jason Isbell's band.
But it is something that has not happened for at least 800,000 years,
yet something that is likely to be surpassed within a year. For the
first time since humans walked the planet, the average carbon dioxide
level in the atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere averaged more than
400 parts per million for a full month, according to the World
Meteorological Organization. We first hit this milestone on one day in
May 2013, but April's average establishes a new monthly record.
Carbon dioxide levels are seasonal. The rate is expected to drop later this summer, but next spring we could see yet another record level. Pre-industrial readings of CO2 were around 280 PPM and levels were approximately 290 PPM at the end of the 19th century. There are still many people in the USA who doubt that we are experiencing man made climate change. As data accumulates their doubts are harder to understand.
This is not a political issue, despite the naysayers who try to make it into one. 400PPM does not respect doubts - it just exists. 400PPM is not a theory. 400PPM is a fact. CO2 is a greenhouse gas. That's also fact, not a theory.
Yet there are still valid questions - important questions that the skeptics are raising. The global climate is an extremely complicated system with more variables than we can encompass in any model. Thus the models are not a perfect predictive tool of the future effects of the change we are causing.
Fortunately the models are constantly being improved as more data is collected. There is still much to understand, but waiting for a perfect understanding of the effects of rising CO2 levels is a fool's answer to a documented problem.
Do you remember the Tobacco Institute – a tobacco industry funded group that existed to delay actions to encourage people to stop smoking? It's scientists prostituted themselves for a paycheck and the result was more people were lost to lung cancer. They are a deservedly forgotten lot.
History is repeating itself as the industries fighting climate change action fund their own studies to delay action. Ultimately they will fail and action will be taken, but at what cost to the world?
Many governments are not waiting. They are taking action now. They have seen the dangers to the well being of their citizens and the probable damage to their economies by taking no action. Beyond that though, they see opportunity. They see promise in carbon capture technology (Alabama is one center for this research). They also know that the cost of alternative energy is plummeting. Solar power in Italy and Germany is now being generated as cheaply as power from fossil fuel.
Unfortunately many of our Washington leaders don't see this opportunity. When responding to the President's plan to limit CO2 emissions from power plants they cited heavily inflated cost estimates and stated that our economy could not afford to meet the standards.
The America that won WWII and won the race to the moon can't afford to clean up our power plants.
They think that suddenly there is no such thing as American ingenuity. They bet against us when they said the auto industry could not afford to install seat belts or to design safer or more efficient cars. They have repeatedly bet against us when they said we could not clean up our most polluted rivers, clean up our air, and reduce chlorofluorocarbons in consumer products (using a free market approach). They have been wrong every time.
Meeting problems head on is the American way. Why do we give any credence to politicians with a can't do attitude? Why do the people who claim to believe in American exceptionalism not actually show it in practice? Real conservatives would figure out the best market based approach to meeting this problem.
There is nothing magical about the 400PPM milestone recently passed. It is merely a speed limit sign that we have ignored as we continue to press the accelerator. But in April a UN climate panel set 450 PPM as the level required to keep global temperature change under 2C. Real damage to our world, to our economy is occurring now and it will get worse.
400PPM is a marker on the road to bigger problems but we still have time to react before the worst predictions come true.
The question is, will we?
You probably didn't hear about it. It's one of those things that is important but not exciting. No cat videos about the number 400 were made. It's not an update to the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans nor a reference to Jason Isbell's band.
Carbon dioxide levels are seasonal. The rate is expected to drop later this summer, but next spring we could see yet another record level. Pre-industrial readings of CO2 were around 280 PPM and levels were approximately 290 PPM at the end of the 19th century. There are still many people in the USA who doubt that we are experiencing man made climate change. As data accumulates their doubts are harder to understand.
This is not a political issue, despite the naysayers who try to make it into one. 400PPM does not respect doubts - it just exists. 400PPM is not a theory. 400PPM is a fact. CO2 is a greenhouse gas. That's also fact, not a theory.
The ten globally hottest years on record
(since 1880) have occurred since 1998, another fact. And although the 36
billion tons of CO2 being released into the atmosphere each year by man
made activities is an estimate, no one can argue that the actual number
is not at least close to that estimate.
The America that won WWII and won the race to the moon can't afford to clean up our power plants.
These are real numbers, not theories. That the level of CO2 in the
atmosphere affects the climate is not even in doubt. Man is contributing
to the accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere. The only questions are
how quickly are we making the climate change and what are the effects.Yet there are still valid questions - important questions that the skeptics are raising. The global climate is an extremely complicated system with more variables than we can encompass in any model. Thus the models are not a perfect predictive tool of the future effects of the change we are causing.
Fortunately the models are constantly being improved as more data is collected. There is still much to understand, but waiting for a perfect understanding of the effects of rising CO2 levels is a fool's answer to a documented problem.
Do you remember the Tobacco Institute – a tobacco industry funded group that existed to delay actions to encourage people to stop smoking? It's scientists prostituted themselves for a paycheck and the result was more people were lost to lung cancer. They are a deservedly forgotten lot.
History is repeating itself as the industries fighting climate change action fund their own studies to delay action. Ultimately they will fail and action will be taken, but at what cost to the world?
Many governments are not waiting. They are taking action now. They have seen the dangers to the well being of their citizens and the probable damage to their economies by taking no action. Beyond that though, they see opportunity. They see promise in carbon capture technology (Alabama is one center for this research). They also know that the cost of alternative energy is plummeting. Solar power in Italy and Germany is now being generated as cheaply as power from fossil fuel.
Unfortunately many of our Washington leaders don't see this opportunity. When responding to the President's plan to limit CO2 emissions from power plants they cited heavily inflated cost estimates and stated that our economy could not afford to meet the standards.
The America that won WWII and won the race to the moon can't afford to clean up our power plants.
They think that suddenly there is no such thing as American ingenuity. They bet against us when they said the auto industry could not afford to install seat belts or to design safer or more efficient cars. They have repeatedly bet against us when they said we could not clean up our most polluted rivers, clean up our air, and reduce chlorofluorocarbons in consumer products (using a free market approach). They have been wrong every time.
Meeting problems head on is the American way. Why do we give any credence to politicians with a can't do attitude? Why do the people who claim to believe in American exceptionalism not actually show it in practice? Real conservatives would figure out the best market based approach to meeting this problem.
There is nothing magical about the 400PPM milestone recently passed. It is merely a speed limit sign that we have ignored as we continue to press the accelerator. But in April a UN climate panel set 450 PPM as the level required to keep global temperature change under 2C. Real damage to our world, to our economy is occurring now and it will get worse.
400PPM is a marker on the road to bigger problems but we still have time to react before the worst predictions come true.
The question is, will we?
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