I guess it’s redundant to say this, but this very bad news. The headline is misleading because it’s not just a rise, but steepening rise.
Scientists report rise in levels of carbon dioxide. By Robert S. Boyd. McClatchy Newspapers
If we are lucky the rising rate is due to increased human use of fossil fuels, and/or increased deforestation in the topics. If we an unlikely, the change is the result of positive feedback mechanisms kicking in — natural mechanisms are spiraling out of control.
Update. More on this. Alarming Acceleration In Carbon Dioxide Emissions Worldwide. Science Daily.
Addition for skeptical Monte and those of similar views, read this from the Real Climate Blog, and here is a very good FAQ.
Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan's Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of "Hiking Idaho." He also wrote "Beyond the Tetons" and "Backpacking Wyoming's Teton and Washakie Wilderness." He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
Human caused global warming is bunk. CO2 generated by human industry is far too little to affect global changes in temperature. Yes, this is just my opinion, but I believe there are so many more important issues such as true wildlife conservation and water quality issues that we should be concerned about. By the time we discover that human caused global warming is a myth, how much time will have been wasted on this “issue”. Now go ahead and tar and feather me for being a non-believer.
Monte, science is not about belief, it is about impirical evidence that can be tested. So far the evidence pointing to humans as the cause of global warming is overwhelming and there are few to no scientists that aren’t paid by Exxon and their pals that would disagree.
Somehow the media has decided that the model of debate which calls for having someone from each side of an issue to speak seems to indicate that there is still some debate. Look at the characters who say that global warming doesn’t exist and you will find that they are usually the same people or people that don’t know what they are talking about like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity.
There have been absolutely no peer reviewed, scientific papers published that would indicate any other source for global warming.
I feel that we are wasting more time arguing about Britney, Nicole, and Paris than we should be and that when we find out that what the scientists, who don’t jump on bandwagons very easily, are saying is correct then we will all be screwed and the conservation and water quality issues will be beyond our ability to fix them. Look around the world and you will find a better form of media and see that most of the rest of the world accepts what the scientists are saying. Only here, especially in the west, is there this total anger towards what people don’t want to hear concerning the environment.
Consider yourself tarred and feathered.
The other Monty replies: Fundmentalism is alive & well. Belief in mythology abounds. Science is increasingly questioned. Irrationality rules the day.
The slow pace of human social evolution has always been & always will be the greatest barrier to problem solving. The penetration of the climate change paradigm into all of our society, unfortunately, may be at a snails pace.
To be a skeptic is a good attribute. Scientists are among the greatest skeptics in the world. But, at some point, doesn’t scientific consensus become an accepted fact like the earth revolves around the sun?
If the global warming alarmists are right, I guess we’ll find out soon enough and I’ll eat crow.