As much as I don’t want to post negative news, as much as I realize that a plethora of negative environmental news may lead us (including my students who have spoken about this) to apathy since it leads to a sense of powerlessness, nevertheless, this news item cannot be dismissed and must be shared.
Remember the dust bowl that afflicted the southern plains of the US in the 1930s. Remember Steinbeck’s ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ (the book, not the 1996 Israeli assault on Lebanon in the same name)
Well, get this.
Another study. This one involved studying a ” range of possible targets for stabilizing carbon-dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, but focused on a particular range: 450 molecules for every million in the atmosphere parts per million by volume (ppm) to 600 ppm. Concentrations as of 2007 stand at about 383 ppm, according to the Global Carbon Project, compared with 280 ppm at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The 450-600 range is of special interest, since 450 by the year 2100 represents a target widely cited in negotiations for a new global climate treaty, which its architects hope will be ready to take over when the 1997 Kyoto Protocol’s first five-year “commitment period” expires in 2012. The 600 is a business-as-usual emissions path.
“In short, if CO2 concentrations peak at 450-600 ppm, declines in rainfall during the dry season in regions such as the US Southwest or the Mediterranean are comparable to the Dust Bowl drought in the US during the 1930s and those seasonal declines persist for millenniums. Sea level from heat expansion alone rises by an average of up to three feet through the year 3000.”
Now we add to that cheery news, this bit of news as well: Global Warming From Carbon Dioxide Will Increase Five-fold Over The Next Millennia, Scientists Predict “Professor Ric Williams, from the University’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, explains: “It is accepted that rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations lead to an increase in heating around the globe. It was, however, unclear as to how the ocean’s ability to store carbon could affect the future overall heating of the earth. “The excessive amount of carbon in the atmosphere will make the oceans more acidic and hamper the ability of the oceans to absorb further carbon from the atmosphere. The extra carbon dioxide remaining in the atmosphere will lead to an increase in the overall heating of our planet, making sea levels rise and exacerbating the melting of the Arctic ice caps.”