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Abstract:

Do glaciers tell a true atmospheric CO2 story?

*********************Abstract***************************

Science of The Total Environment

Volume 114, April 1992, Pages 227-284

Z. Jaworowski^a^,^*, T.V. Segalstad^b and N. Ono^c

^aNorwegian Polar Research Institute, P.O. Box 158, N-1330 Oslo, Norway

^bMineralogical-Geological Museum, University of Oslo, Sars' Gate 1, N-0562 Oslo, Norway

^cArctic Environment Research Center, National Institute of Polar Research, 9-10, Kaga 1-Chome, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173, Japan

Received 24 July 1991;

accepted 19 August 1991.

Available online 26 June 2003.

Abstract

Until 1985 most studies of CO₂ in gas inclusions in pre-industrial ice indicated that CO₂ concentrations (up to 2450 ppm) were higher than the current atmospheric level. After 1985, lower pre-industrial CO₂ values were reported, and used as evidence for a recent man-made CO₂ increase. The errors in these revised values, however, are of a similar magnitude to the apparent increase in atmospheric CO₂ level. The assumptions used in estimating lower CO₂ values in past atmospheres have been: no liquid phase in polar ice; younger age of air than of ice due to free gas exchange between deep firn and the atmosphere; and no change in composition of air inclusions. These assumptions are shown to be invalid. Liquid saline water exists in ice at low temperatures, even below −70°C; airtight ice layers are ubiquitous in Antarctic firn; and more than 20 physico-chemical processes operating in situ and in ice cores contribute to the alteration of the chemical composition of air inclusions. The permeable ice sheet with its capillary liquid network acts as a sieve which redistributes elements, isotopes, and micro-particles. Thirty-six to 100% of air recovered from old ice is contaminated by recent atmospheric air during field and laboratory operations. The value of not, vert, similar 290 ppm, widely accepted from glacier studies for the pre-industrial atmospheric CO₂ level, apparently results from: invalid assumptions; processes in ice sheets; artifacts in ice cores; and arbitrary rejection of high readings. To date, glaciological studies are not able to provide a reliable reconstruction of either the CO₂ level in pre-industrial and ancient atmospheres or paleoclimates. Instead these studies have led to a widely accepted false dogma of man-made climatic warming. This dogma may have enormous negative impact on our common future.

Keywords: CO₂; isotopes; glaciers; greenhouse warming

^* Present address: Institute of Physics, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1048, Blindern, N-0316 Oslo, Norway.

Science of The Total Environment
Volume 114, April 1992, Pages 227-284