Global Warming not a fluke!

[macdoc]

GMB

thanks ended up being annoying at Dawkins....lunatics on the loose everywhere...

Thought maybe a recap for those so inclined....we finally got the denier infestation under control at RDNet.

Reiterated current science.

The CO2 problem in 6 easy steps
Filed under:
* Greenhouse gases
* Climate Science
— gavin @ 4:32 PM

We often get requests to provide an easy-to-understand explanation for why increasing CO2 is a significant problem without relying on climate models and we are generally happy to oblige. The explanation has a number of separate steps which tend to sometimes get confused and so we will try to break it down carefully.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/08/the-co2-problem-in-6-easy-steps/

The position of the AGU

Key excerpt

Evidence from most oceans and all continents except Antarctica shows warming attributable to human activities.

Recent changes in many physical and biological systems are linked with this regional climate change. A sustained research effort, involving many AGU members and summarized in the 2007 assessments of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, continues to improve our scientific understanding of the climate.

During recent millennia of relatively stable climate, civilization became established and populations have grown rapidly. In the next 50 years, even the lower limit of impending climate change—an additional global mean warming of 1°C above the last decade—is far beyond the range of climate variability experienced during the past thousand years and poses global problems in planning for and adapting to it.

Warming greater than 2°C above 19th century levels is projected to be disruptive, reducing global agricultural productivity, causing widespread loss of biodiversity, and—if sustained over centuries—melting much of the Greenland ice sheet with ensuing rise in sea level of several meters.

If this 2°C warming is to be avoided, then our net annual emissions of CO2 must be reduced by more than 50 percent within this century.

http://www.agu.org/sci_soc/policy/positions/climate_change2008.shtml

••••

The inertia in the ocean acidification means there are tipping points for a wide variety of species that we cannot avoid or mitigate.

Fifth of world's corals already dead, say experts
December 10th, 2008 in General Science / Biology

Half a billion people depend on coral reefs for food and tourism, according to a common estimate

An environmental management specialist of the Batangas city fisheries office inspects a coral reef formation in the Verde sea passage south of Manila, Philippines, February 2007. Almost a fifth of the planet's coral reefs have died and carbon emissions are largely to blame, according to an NGO study released Wednesday.

Almost a fifth of the planet's coral reefs have died and carbon emissions are largely to blame, according to an NGO study released Wednesday.

The report, released by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, warned that on current trends, growing levels of greenhouse gases will destroy many of the remaining reefs over the next 20 to 40 years.

"If nothing is done to substantially cut emissions, we could effectively lose coral reefs as we know them, with major coral extinctions," said Clive Wilkinson, the organisation's coordinator.

the CO2 from 50 years ago is showing up in major biota areas ahead of anticipated timing...

Until now, researchers believed most of the acidified water was confined to the deep oceans.

But during ship-based surveys last year, Feely and his colleagues found the natural upwelling that occurs along the West Coast each spring was pulling the acidified water up onto the continental shelf.

"This is another example where what's happening in the natural world seems to be happening much faster than what our climate models predict," said Carnegie Institution climate scientist Ken Caldeira, whose work suggested it would be nearly 100 years before acidified water was common along the West Coast.

And there's worse to come, the scientists warn.

The acidified water upwelling along the coast today was last exposed to the atmosphere about 50 years ago, when carbon-dioxide levels were much lower than they are now. That means the water that will rise from the depths over the coming decades will have absorbed more carbon dioxide, and will be even more acidic.

"We've got 50 years' worth of water that's already left the station and is on our way to us," study co-author Hales said. "Each one of those years is going to be a little bit more corrosive

and it is accelerating

25 November 2008
Ocean acidification speeding up
......
Reporting on his team's work in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Wootton noted that while scientists have long predicted that higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide would make the ocean more acidic, empirical evidence until now has been limited.

Addressing this deficit, the new study spans eight years and represents the first detailed dataset on variations of coastal pH at a temperate latitude — where the world's most productive fisheries live. "The acidity increased more than 10 times faster than had been predicted by climate change models and other studies," Wootton warned. "This increase will have a severe impact on marine food webs and suggests that ocean acidification may be a more urgent issue than previously thought, at least in some areas of the ocean."

The ocean plays a significant role in global carbon cycles. When atmospheric carbon dioxide dissolves in water it forms carbonic acid, increasing the acidity of the ocean. During the day, carbon dioxide levels in the ocean fall because photosynthesis takes it out of the water, but at night, levels increase again. The study documented this daily pattern, as well as a steady increase in acidity over time.

"Many sea creatures have shells or skeletons made of calcium carbonate, which the acid can dissolve," explained co-researcher Catherine Pfister. "Therefore, the increased acidity of the ocean could interfere with many critical ocean processes such as coral reef building or shellfish harvesting."

Conducted at Tatoosh Island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington, the study documented that the number of mussels (pictured) and stalked barnacles fell as acidity increased. At the same time, populations of smaller, shelled species and non-calcareous algae increased.

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20081024230927data_trunc_sys.shtml

I'll ask the same question in a lull here ...

I'm quite sure people here have very diverse opinions on what if anything needs doing in which order.....