Posted on 09/27/2005 4:29:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The effect of greenhouse gases on the Earth's atmosphere has increased 20 percent since 1990, a new government index says.
The Annual Greenhouse Gas Index was released Tuesday by the Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory in Boulder, Colo.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide accumulate in the atmosphere as a result of industrial and other processes. They can help trap solar heat, somewhat like a greenhouse, resulting in a gradual warming of the Earth's atmosphere.
The Earth's average temperature increased about 1 degree Fahrenheit during the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that continuing increases could have serious effects on crops, glaciers, the spread of disease, rising sea levels and other changes.
In its new analysis the laboratory, a branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, compares the amounts of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons in the air. Those gases have been sampled for many years.
The index was set to a reading of 1 as of 1990 and the lab said it is currently 1.20, indicating an increase of 20 percent.
"The AGGI will serve as a gauge of success or failure of future efforts to curb carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas increases in the atmosphere both by natural and human-engineered processes," said David Hofmann, CMDL director.
The index is expected to be updated each April.
"This index provides us with a valuable benchmark for tracking the composition of the atmosphere as we seek to better understand the dynamics of Earth's climate," said NOAA Administrator Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr.
In the current reading, for every million air molecules there are about 375 carbon dioxide molecules, two are methane and less than one is a nitrous oxide molecule. The CFC's make up less than one molecule in a billion in the atmosphere but play a role in regulating Earth's climate and are a key factor in the depletion of the protective ozone layer, NOAA researchers say.
The gases produce an effect known as radiative forcing. It is a shift in the balance between solar radiation coming into the atmosphere and Earth's radiation going out. Radiative forcing, as measured by the index, is calculated from the atmospheric concentration of each contributing gas and the per-molecule climate forcing of each gas.
The lab said most of the increase measured since 1990 is due to carbon dioxide, which now accounts for about 62 percent of the radiative forcing by all long-lived greenhouse gases.
NOAA said the 1990 baseline was chosen because greenhouse gas emissions targeted by the international Kyoto Protocol also are indexed to 1990.
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On the Net:
NOAA Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Lab: http://www.cmdl.noaa.gov
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We're Doomed.
Independent Online - Sep 19 1:11 AM
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research's annual survey shows that glaciers have reversed a pattern in which they shrunk because of global warming, but in New Zealand's Southern Alps, 50 have been gaining more ice mass.
Now there is a place where Operation Offset can make some serious spending cuts. What the bleep is the Govt doing wasting ANY Fed Dollars on this nonsense.
FRom a Web site for Guest on last night's CoasttoCoastAM show.
http://www.iceagenow.com/index.htm
> ... compares the amounts of carbon dioxide, methane,
> nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons in the air. ...
> The index was set to a reading of 1 as of 1990 and
> the lab said it is currently 1.20, indicating an
> increase of 20 percent.
Which makes the headline entirely fraudulent.
"Effect of Greenhouse Gases Rising"
The INDEX has risen by 20%, and there is no data on the
supposed EFFECTS.
And they didn't tell us how the index is calculated,
nor how many PPM it represents in the atmosphere.
There is no real information here, only AP propaganda.
But you knew that.
There is no real information here, only AP propaganda.
But you knew that.
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:-D
What's wrong, those environmental wacko memes not digesting too well?
As discussed on Rush's show today…
The truth about global warming - it's the Sun that's to blame
By Michael Leidig and Roya Nikkhah
(Filed: 18/07/2004)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wsun18.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/18/ixnewstop.html
Sad to say, but Obvious answers don't lead to millions in research money being spent to reach the same conclusions.
Global warming- Something New Under the Sun
- "These three papers argue that the amount of incoming solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth has increased dramatically in the last two decades. While the values vary from paper to paper, in toto the new studies suggest that the increase in solar radiation absorbed at the earth’s surface had almost 10 times as much warming power during that time as the concurrent increases in carbon dioxide ..."
Seems that solar activity is increasing substantially more than IPPC and Greenhouse alarmists want to admit to.
Yeah, and a good deal of that increased radiation is FROM REDUCED emissions thanks to our GREEN SCREAMING WEASELS!
The planet is still coming out of the Little Ice Age.
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