
ThursdayEarly Afternoon, June 6, 2013
Tropical Storm Andrea:
Latest Carbon Dioxide Levels:
Through March, 2013 ... Atmosphere Carbon Dioxide levels continues to increase, as expected and as it will. A sustainable atmospheric heat budget would need CO2 levels of 350 parts per million or lower. The current yearly mean value is now 397 ppm and increasing at a rate now of 3.2 ppm per year. What this means is that the earth retains more heat received from the sun due to the increase in CO2 ... in other words, the planet continues to warm.
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Even if we stopped all CO2 emissions, the value will continue to rise due to "positive feedback forcing". The reason is that most of the atmospheric CO2 will remain in the atmosphere for more than 100 years and as the warming continues, more CO2 that is currently dissolved in the oceans will leach back out into the atmosphere.
Patrick Prokop
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