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'The Saddest Thing Is That It Won't Be Breaking News': Concentration of CO2 Hits Record High of 416 ppm

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#37

Methane, CH4, is lighter per mole of molecules than air, about 78% N2 and 21% O2. A huge methane gas leak goes straight up in the air. Asphyxiation is quite unlikely.

As a matter of fact, Providence, RI had a natural gas main blowout, millions of cubic feet escaped and went pretty much straight up. No asphyxiation and fortunately no sparks to set it off.

Liquefied natural gas is a different animal entirely. The world’s first liquefied natural gas tank farm was in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1944, late in WWII, the tank farm had a small explosion and lots of LNG poured down into the sewers. That’s where it vaporized, in a rather enclosed area. Eventually a spark was found and one square mile of houses and factories exploded. 10,000 people lost their homes. Manhole covers were blasted upwards and landed several miles away. Because people ran in terror from the first smaller explosion, only perhaps 140 people died in the two kiloton blast.

#38

I agree and the #1 kamikazi in my opinion, is Bloomberg to whom I would submit was allowed to illegally enter the debates. I think the DNC and it’s corrupt elites saw that Bernie could be threat to their corporate, Democratic choice Biden, so are using Bloomberg as a way to eliminate Bernie.

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#39

I hate like hell to say it, but if I was betting in Las Vegas on who the next POTUS will be…I would have to bet on Bloomberg.

#40

Well, he took some green initiatives in NYC, says Wikipedia. On the other hand, Wikipedia looks like it has been diddled by political operatives to severely downplay the fact that he ran as a Republican for all three of his elections.

We have no idea where Mr. Bloomberg got all that money!! Best guess, he somehow got himself a cut every time somebody traded in the stock market, and it added up fast. We know that premium stock market players get to buy and sell a fraction of a second faster than anyone else, so they look at whether other people want to buy or sell and then they get to go first, and then the original buyer or seller learns that the market suddenly jumped away from him or her so they have to pay extra or else no sale.

#45

It seems to be top secret.

#46

Maybe we can catch up with Mars.

#47

The way the scientific community over the last 20 or so years, has repeatedly underestimated the level of damage to the environment, and when we would expect to see their predicted estimates, leads me to believe that their current estimate of a 417 PPM level of CO2 by May of this year will probably be reached sooner, and maybe even exceeded.

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#48

OK, I’m not a climate scientist, nor do I doubt that climate change is happening, but when I read this story, the first thing that entered my mind was “Yeah, they built a climate monitoring station on top of an active volcano… what could possibly be wrong with that?”

The answer is that volcanos vent gases like carbon dioxide, that’s what’s wrong with that! So I checked Wiki and found the following statement, “Measurements are adjusted to account for local outgassing of CO2 from the volcano.” Gee that sounds like a tricky, error prone thing to do! There would necessarily be many variables. Wouldn’t it have been much simpler to build the observatory on some other mountain where outgassing of CO2 is not a problem? Don’t these people realize that the anti-climate change forces will notice this little detail and make us look stupid?

#50

Robots? :slight_smile:

#51

This NOVA could explain climate change even to a Republican:

(h)ttps://www.pbs.org/video/polar-extremes-mfaum5/

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#52

There are a small percentage of people in the way to make the necessary changes happen quickly.
In a society that values life and our home this would have been normal practice without a conscious thought.

They are being dangerous to us all ,behaving like children playing with matches.

We are starting to feel the heat now but we can still take those matches out of their hands.

Time to Awaken The Species

#53

You are thinking about this from a ‘once only’ perspective as if they took readings only once and then made projections based on that. Scientists from around the world corroborate their findings with measurements taken from many, many sources world wide on a daily/yearly basis. They chose the location because it rises high above the Pacific and the air is so pure. They measure any CO2 or other gases that may be emitted by the volcano, of course and they do not take their readings from within the volcano’s cone and apply it to readings of the general atmosphere.

I sincerely suggest that you consider the observation of climate change using the following analogy.

If you asked a thousand people what is the color of a red barn, nearly all would rightfully say it was red. However, if you went around asking only the people among the thousand who were color blind then they would say that it looked gray to them. What color would you then say the barn was when based on the observations of those few that you had asked?

If you ask only those who deny the evidence that is continually being collected by virtually the whole scientific community worldwide then you will get a similarly ‘color blind’ denialist view of climate change.

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#54

The Earth’s temperatures can only be accurately measured up to about 800,000 years ago because ice core measurements can only go back that far. Fossil sea shell estimates while controversial do go back to much earlier eras. Millions of years ago the sun was cooler and though life existed, with higher ratios of CO2 than now, oxygen levels were some 5% richer in the days of the dinosaurs. Back then Antarctica had trees and dinosaurs and the Sahara was green. Plate tectonics resulted in the uplifting of mountain ranges which helped reduce CO2 through weathering etc. Going back only a couple of million years ago when Homo habilis first picked its nose, the Earth’s temperature was at or near today’s CO2 levels but the oceans were a 100ft. higher and warm beachfront property up in Scandinavia was to be had at bargain prices.

I think common sense should tell anyone that the ‘banksters’ as you call them and the corporate media of today who have done their best to deny climate change for so long are not likely to be the ones pushing climate change on anybody. Dystopia is in the eye of the beholder I suppose but take one look at Australia and see the reality of climate change for them. Moreover, are you suggesting that autocrats and dictators are trying to instill fear in us serfs …um… people by faking the reality of climate change? Um? What does that make Trump? Or the denialist Prime Minister of Australia? Or the others who have long tried to deny climate change? It is not like they have been trying to convince anyone that climate change is real that I can see.

Since humans were first human hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Earth has never seen this high a CO2 ratio. It continues to go higher and higher, so it isn’t about lifestyle changes as much as it is survival for your grandchildren. Nearly 8 billion people and their cars and planes and power plants etc. produce billions upon billions of tons of carbon each year. To suggest that has no cumulative effect over the years is an indication that you failed high school chemistry at best. I suppose you simply ignore a melting Polar Ice Cap? Do you really think that everyone in the world is just faking that? Are we all just pretending just to trick you? Our own navy has reported that we can longer hide our nuclear submarines below the ice cap in the North Pole because the ice has shrunk so much and what is left is too thin. Are they also fooling us? Just for the fun of it maybe?

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#55

Thanks for sharing that link-----looks very good!

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#56

Thanks for your reply Wereflea. So what are these “many, many sources world wide” reporting? Unfortunately the Article does not say but rather implies by silence that this daily reading is typical. It would really be nice to know if that’s the case. As for the point of my comment it flies in the face of common sense that if it was so important to build the site in the middle of the Pacific because the air is so pure there, why then would they build it right on top of a source of CO2?

#57

Look at Tasmania Clean air station as a source.

And as for 417ppm by May, 420ppm more likely.

#58

You could try doing even a minimum of research yourself first. Just sayin’! They monitor CO2 emissions quite carefully especially as abrupt changes could signal upcoming volcanic activity. They do not have their monitoring equipment located by known vents (those are monitored) nor even near such minuscule sources of CO2 emissions as from green plants. The monitoring is done on huge barren lava fields that have solidified and cooled long ago. If there were to be emissions, tiny amounts would be registered and investigated. The air over the Pacific is reliably purer than anywhere else because there are no major population centers like Asia or Europe etc. nearby. Air at 11,500 ft. Is well mixed and gives a notably true reading for general gaseous proportions in the atmosphere. These findings are collated and confirmed by other observatories in the world and by thousands of small monitoring stations around the world. This is not the Victorian Age of science. Science goes to exacting pains to verify findings because that is the definition of science - verifiable facts. You may buy a home version of an atmospheric gas testing kit and do your own anecdotal tests but you would only get a personal result. By placing extremely sensitive and accurate equipment in places like Mauna Loa, Antarctica, Tibet, and elsewhere, atmospheric scientists get a long term view of changes in the atmosphere. You are making the mistake of thinking that there are unknown CO2 emissions from the volcano affecting the equipment as if the scientists wouldn’t have ever thought of that? Lava fields are land over which formerly molten lava has solidified. There are vast lava fields in Idaho for example and bare rock is bare rock there too but readings from there would register CO2 emissions from civilization. Ever been at 11,500 ft.? A mite windy to say the least but even so, the scientists want to know the facts whichever direction they lay and not to prove any one perspective.

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#61

They need to be better at it. I think that there is a poorer quality of trolls than what existed years ago. Why back in my day there were trolls who were really trolls…! Lol. Trolls used to know the facts that they denied admitting that they knew. Now those were a better quality trolls! Many were in the fossil fuel field and felt it awkward that ‘someone’ might find our that they were disloyal to their hefty pay checks. Now we have mostly the ‘know nuthin’ and don’t wanna know nuthin’ trolls! I guess I miss the good old days when you had to know your stuff to win the argument.

Back then we had the ‘coming ice age’ type of troll, for example. No one actually believed that nonsense but the game was in trying to see if they were CIA or industry ‘paid volunteers’ lol. Even as only a few years ago there was palpable enthusiasm for just telling the lies. The field of global warming denial was growing passé and it got harder to find arguing that better educated class of trolls then you find today. Now denying global warming has gone so mainstream in troll world that it is taken for granted at Trump rallies. No enthusiasm, ya’ know? Same old same old denial. This person at least tried that what about the volcano dodge or tried to. Sigh. I grow nostalgic for those who knew better but weren’t going to admit it type of trolls. No all you encounter are the voluntarily uninformed troll - those who don’t know and know that they don’t want to know type of troll. The ‘I don’t want to know’ troll glorifies in their not ever learning the facts. If necessary, they pretend those facts are not facts. For them - denial is its own excuse.

I responded simply because I have a problem letting incorrect facts stand. I feel compelled to present the truth almost automatically. I am the kind of person who will tell you if your fly is open or that there is a booger in your nose rather than laughing behind your back or letting you walk around like that all day. I know that powerful people do not have to lie to their subordinates but it is the other way around for those subordinates. Subordinates have to lie, kiss up, kiss ass and play the game for the boss etc. I choose facts as my high ground and they do the fighting for me.

The person who knows what is true and what is false always has the home court advantage. The truth is the truth and that is that. Lies on the other hand could be anything and everything. There are those who will, of course, say that all truth is subjective. Opinions are subjective not facts. Facts are facts that have nothing to do with opinions. That cup of coffee that burns your lips is hot. A subjective opinion? Yep. It may not be as hot as molten lava but the truth that molten lava is hot is not an opinion. We can always say that everything is subjective but we have a reference point perspective. To human lips the coffee is hot but it won’t set you aflame like will lava. Verifiable science does its best to avoid subjectivity.

Facts are my friends not my enemies like it is for trolls. Trolls know and know that they don’t want to know. I can’t be like that. I personally liked the better informed troll of yore myself (the fossil fuel geologist and what have you) but these days there has been a noticeable decline in overall ability among the current crop of trolls. You almost never find any that still don’t know the truth already. The newer trolls actually have more of a kiss up/kiss ass mentality. They know global warming exists. They aren’t really that stupid. They just want to identify with what they think their betters feel about things. The ‘I am just like the rich guy except for all that money’ person who doesn’t want to think of themself as being among the losers (as defined as not being rich or at least well off)!True believer trolls are afraid to find out that they were wrong all this time. They realize then that their fly was open or they had a booger in their nose all this time. Some people can’t handle that much reality. They work two jobs, have no benefits and no pension to retire on but nevertheless they identify with the rich and try to be what they think rich people are like. Most rich people already know about global warming as they are usually educated for the most part but they don’t care (or they want somebody else to pay to fix it just not them. Oil is still profitable!

Mostly I couldn’t sleep earlier lol and so now I felt that I had to re-answer them.

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#62

It was Louis XV who said that. He died before the 1789 French Revolution. You may be thinking that it was said by Louis XVI-----who was indeed guillotined.

#64

Gosh!