I. Global Warming Facts with references including my own calculations. 1. A 1-degree rise in temperature is significant. a. Scientist think a 2 degree C rise from the industrial revolution is a tipping point for runaway droughts, floods, storms, ocean level rise, etc. b. The global temperature has risen 0.8 degrees C, (1.44 F) since 1880. Two thirds of the rise is the last 40 years. (NASA) c. 93% of the heating from the sun is in the ocean not the atmosphere. Since 1970, when the curve turned upward, the 5-year average ocean heat has risen steadily by 3 x 1023 joules. (NOAA) d. 3 x 1023 joules is the energy equivalent to 3,000,000,000 Hiroshima Atomic Bombs. (My calculations) 2. The September (permanent) arctic ice has shrunk by 12,000 cubic km since 1979. (Washington U. Polar Science Center) Melting ice takes 80 calories per gram without changing its temperature. It took four trillion MBtus of heat to melt this permanent ice. This is equivalent to burning all the natural gas produced from 1979 to now. 3. 12 of the hottest 13 years occurred in this century. This year is on track to be the hottest yet. (NASA) 4. Carbon dioxide distribution is global not local. In 1771 the CO2 averaged 280 ppm across the globe. Today its 400 ppm. The lowest level is 391 ppm found in the southern hemisphere and the highest 402 ppm is the northern hemisphere where most of the carbon is burned. (NASA Earth Observatory.) 5. Carbon dioxide is rising 100 times faster than ever. 800,000 years of analysis show that the carbon dioxide cycled from 180 ppm to 280 ppm over 100,000 year periods. 180 ppm is generally associated with ice ages, and 280 ppm with Goldilocks temperatures. It only took 200 years for the carbon dioxide to rise 120 ppm – to present day 400 ppm. Thats a 40% rise in a very short time. 6. The temperature rise in 50 years is about 0.5 degrees C. This is a rate of 1 degree C per 100 years. During the last 800,000 years it took over 1500 years to rise the same amount. The current temperature rise is at least 10 times faster than ever. 7. These are not ordinary cycles.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 15:03:24 +0000