Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 11/10/2009 11:00:00 AM PST by Teflonic
New data show that the balance between the airborne and the absorbed fraction of carbon dioxide has stayed approximately constant since 1850, despite emissions of carbon dioxide having risen from about 2 billion tons a year in 1850 to 35 billion tons a year now.
This suggests that terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans have a much greater capacity to absorb CO2 than had been previously expected.
The results run contrary to a significant body of recent research which expects that the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans to absorb CO2 should start to diminish as CO2 emissions increase, letting greenhouse gas levels skyrocket. Dr Wolfgang Knorr at the University of Bristol found that in fact the trend in the airborne fraction since 1850 has only been 0.7 ± 1.4% per decade, which is essentially zero.
The strength of the new study, published online in Geophysical Research Letters, is that it rests solely on measurements and statistical data, including historical records extracted from Antarctic ice, and does not rely on computations with complex climate models.
This work is extremely important for climate change policy, because emission targets to be negotiated at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen early next month have been based on projections that have a carbon free sink of already factored in. Some researchers have cautioned against this approach, pointing at evidence that suggests the sink has already started to decrease.
So is this good news for climate negotiations in Copenhagen? “Not necessarily”, says Knorr. “Like all studies of this kind, there are uncertainties in the data, so rather than relying on Nature to provide a free service, soaking up our waste carbon, we need to ascertain why the proportion being absorbed has not changed”.
Another result of the study is that emissions from deforestation might have been overestimated by between 18 and 75 per cent. This would agree with results published last week in Nature Geoscience by a team led by Guido van der Werf from VU University Amsterdam. They re-visited deforestation data and concluded that emissions have been overestimated by at least a factor of two.
Everything Al Gore believes about carbon is wrong.
Data? Data? We don't need no steenkin' DATA!
This, among other contradicting reports, will be buried.
“terrestrial ecosystems and the oceans have a much greater capacity to absorb CO2”
ya mean, increased CO2 leads to increased plant growth that absorbs the increased CO2?
Because increased plant life is necessary to support whoever and whatever is giving off the excess CO2?
As if the earth were a living ecosystem that had some mysterious ability to self-correct and balance itself to support life?
Nah, never ......
That would be cool. Then we would have no need for Lord O'bama.
Oops! What am I saying?
Ping
Everybody has to believe something. I believe I'll have another drink. Al Gore believes, correctly, that the carbon racket is making him a millionaire many times over and awarding him fame and accolades he could never have achieved in any honest line of work.
bm
“it rests solely on measurements and statistical data, including historical records extracted from Antarctic ice, and does not rely on computations with complex climate models.”
WORDS YOU AREN”T LIKELY TO HEAR SPOKEN PUBLICALLY BY ENVIRO-WACKOS AND THE IPCC:
Complex computations that relay on complex climate models are much preferrable to facts, as they can be coaxed into telling you exactly what it is that we want to you hear. Enviro-justice must be served and the truth can really inhibit our ability to accomplish world-wide redistribution of wealth. So, of course, climate models work the best!
In fact, if we had our way, these rogue scientists taking actual measurments would quietly disappear.
Yes, and he will receive further reward when he dies and enters the kingdom of.... well, it ain't heaven is all I will say.
I’m in the computer software development business, and years ago I developed a model of a gas compressor that put out more gas than it took in. THE COMPUTER SAID SO. I tried to sell it like that, but no go. It turns out I had made an error in my model.
So according to the enviro-wackos, this report is bad because it is based on facts and not perceptions. They cannot let facts get in the way with how they feel about things.
“... found that in fact the trend in the airborne fraction since 1850 has only been 0.7 ± 1.4% per decade, which is essentially zero.”
With that error, the range is -0.7 to 2.1 %. (Could be up - could be down!). Also, water vapor is a much stronger component to the greenhouse effect. Something like 2 to 3x “better” than CO2. So, that 0.7% CO2 only adds something like 0.2% to the greenhouse EFFECT. But hey, if we can cripple our economy to get that 0.2% down by 25% (to say, 0.15%) - I guess that’s a good thing.
Absolutely true, if you’re a commie.
One of the first rules that every scientist is supposed to learn is that when the model contradicts the data, the model is wrong.
The whole Al Gore/Jim Hansen/Green CAGW thing is falling apart. This new finding supports the notion that CO2 is not nearly as long-lived as had been assumed and baked into the climate models. More and more people are asking the basic questions that should have been asked back in 1988 when Hansen began his chicken little routine.
There is a new discussion report on Himalayan Glaciers from the Indian Ministry for the Environment that basically aargues that the scaremongering about the disappearance of these glaciers is just that and that there is no significant change in the rate of retreat of these glaciers since the last Ice Age - averaging 5 meters per year or about 500 yards per century!
The new Finish TV special that points out the flawed science underpinning the iconic hockey stick is excellent. Transcripts are available at http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/09/mcintyre-and-lindzen-to-appear-on-finnish-tv-documentary-transcript/
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