Figure 27.1: Figure shows human-induced changes in the global carbon dioxide budget roughly since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Emissions from fossil fuel burning are the dominant cause of the steep rise shown here from 1850 to 2012. (Global Carbon Project 2010, 20121,2).
The new US global change 2014 study is
here now (pdf) (and will be officially released by President Obama later today) and its conclusion is that the impacts of global climate change are also here now. This is no longer a phenomenon that will affect strangers from across the globe this will affect you. So if you're not tuned in yet it's time to wake up and join the rest of humanity to save our magnificent home.
I encourage you to check out the site linked above to see how the impacts of climate change are affecting your region and you and your family. No one will be spared.
Key message from the report:
Carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere by natural processes at a rate that is roughly half of the current rate of emissions from human activities. Therefore, mitigation efforts that only stabilize global emissions will not reduce atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, but will only limit their rate of increase. The same is true for other long-lived greenhouse gases.
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Of the carbon dioxide emitted from human activities in a year, about half is removed from the atmosphere by natural processes within a century, but around 20% continues to circulate and to affect atmospheric concentrations for thousands of years. Stabilizing or reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, therefore, requires very deep reductions in future emissions – ultimately approaching zero – to compensate for past emissions that are still circulating in the Earth system. Avoiding future emissions, or capturing and storing them in stable geological storage, would prevent carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, and would have very long-lasting effects on atmospheric concentrations.
CO2 is indeed the culprit accounting for about 50 percent of greenhouse emissions but about
40-45 percent (pdf) of climate forcers released into the atmosphere are short-lived in atmosphere and present an opportunity for rapid near-term cooling perhaps enough to stop or at least slow the worst impacts of climate change. I have been
writing about the short-lived climate pollutants of methane, black carbon(soot) and ground level ozone and their potential for rapid climate cooling. We now know that animal agriculture (which contributes greatly to deforestation) is a
major source (pdf) of short-lived climate pollutants giving us an immediate opportunity for mitigation
A quote from Laurance Lewis's excellent post Atmospheric CO2 levels last month averaged what a year ago was unprecedented in human history
A year ago, we blew through 400 ppm for the first time in human history. Now we've seen our first month that averaged that level. What's next? We're drilling, mining, fracking, deforesting and even eating our way toward finding out. It won't be pretty.
There is opportunity in Laurence's message. We can protest drilling, mining, fracking and deforestation (and we must!) but the most effective and immediate individual action we can take to mitigate the worst effects of climate change is to reduce/eliminate our consumption of meat and meat products.