Greenhouse Gases Rose At Record Rate Last Year, Says World Meteorological Organization
The World Meteorological Organization has just released its latest Greenhouse Gas Bulletin, which reports trends in the concentrations of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere. From the WMO press release:
The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new record high in 2013, propelled by a surge in levels of carbon dioxide. …
The Greenhouse Gas Bulletin showed that between 1990 and 2013 there was a 34% increase in radiative forcing – the warming effect on our climate – because of long-lived greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide.
In 2013, concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 142% of the pre-industrial era (1750), and of methane and nitrous oxide 253% and 121% respectively.
The observations from WMO's Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) network showed that CO2 levels increased more between 2012 and 2013 than during any other year since 1984. Preliminary data indicated that this was possibly related to reduced CO2 uptake by the earth's biosphere in addition to the steadily increasing CO2 emissions.
The WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin reports on atmospheric concentrations – and not emissions—of greenhouse gases. Emissions represent what goes into the atmosphere. Concentrations represent what remains in the atmosphere after the complex system of interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere and the oceans. About a quarter of the total emissions are taken up by the oceans and another quarter by the biosphere, reducing in this way the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The ocean cushions the increase in CO2 that would otherwise occur in the atmosphere, but with far-reaching impacts. The current rate of ocean acidification appears unprecedented at least over the last 300 million years, according to an analysis in the report.
"We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels," said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.
The report has been released in advance of the United Nations Climate Change Summit that will convene with more than 100 heads of government and state in New York on September 23rd. A People's Climate March is scheduled for the Sunday (September 21) before the Summit. I will be covering both events.
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You mean all of these people driving Prius’s and voting to subsidize “wind energy” didn’t make a dime’s worth of difference? I am shocked Ron. Shocked I tell you.
It’s hard to make a dent in CO2 output when you drive your Prius to your 3,500 square foot house that you keep air conditioned all day.
Don’t even get me started on electric cars.
Come one Designate, don’t you know that C02 is more toxic and bad for the environment than battery acid?
Don’t even get me started on electric cars.
Coal-powered vehicles are back in vogue!
No way. We need to go into the future and drive cars powered by windmills.
Oh my god, did you say … AIRBOAT!?
+1 Gator
RAMPAGE!!!!!!
What you did there, I saw it.
The ones who fly their private jets to global warming conferences are the real morons. Or maybe they’re brilliant; it could actually go either way.
It’s hard to make a dent in CO2 output when you drive your Prius to your 3,500 square foot house that you keep air conditioned all day.
And illuminated all night. To a man, every Tesla owner I know does this. Not that I know Elon Musk, but I’m certain you could sit on his lawn and read at midnight.
As my uncle says:
him: “Who needs more than one car”
me: “you have 6”
him: “but each one has a purpose”
And that’s why this shit will never go anywhere.
“It’s hard to make a dent in CO2 output when you drive your Prius to your 3,500 square foot house that you keep air conditioned all day.”
CO2 emissions may have increased worldwide, but I’m not sure they did in the United States or the rest of the developed world. CO2 emission have been declining in the United States in recent years–due to the use of natural gas, among other things.
And, just for the record, I don’t think we should look down our noses at people doing voluntary things–like buying a Prius–to help solve the problems they care about. Those are exactly the kinds of voluntary solutions libertarians should encourage.
Encouraging them and mocking them aren’t mutually exclusive.
Buying a prius ain’t completely voluntary – $7,500 subsidies on the backs of taxpayers per car – means that you and I are being forced to pay for their indulgences.
That’s a legitimate objection, of course!
But then the objection is to the subsidies.
…not driving around in cars that may help the environment.
And here we have Ken, arguing with people about what they are objecting to, as though that were in any way productive.
“…not driving around in cars that may help the environment.”
Citation needed.
Even the guy who lead the Prius design has come out and said it doesn’t actually do that, iirc.
And, just for the record, I don’t think we should look down our noses at people doing voluntary things–like buying a Prius–to help solve the problems they care about. Those are exactly the kinds of voluntary solutions libertarians should encourage.
Buying a Prius to save the environment is outright stupid. Those people need to be ridiculed.
Buying a Prius to save money on gas can be good financial planning.
Buying a Prius to save the environment is outright stupid.
Buying a Prius isn’t going to save the environment by itself–but then no one thing is. If you don’t think replacing SUVs with Priuses means throwing less carbon into the atmosphere, then you’re an idiot.
Regardless, the libertarian solution to these problems is for people who care to do things with their own time, money, and effort–and buying a Prius is one of those things.
You buying a handgun isn’t going to solve the problem of inner city gangs by itself, either, but why the hell would a libertarian discourage individuals from exercising their Second Amendment rights?
My guess is? Some of you just don’t like the people who drive around in a Prius feeling all superior. j…but that’s hardly a substantive libertarian objection to individuals using their own money to do things they care about.
And if you’re gonna try to make it look like it is a libertarian position–somehow–on a libertarian website, don’t be surprised if another libertarian calls you out on it.
Sure, you’re trading the 45% efficiency of an ICE for the 85% efficiency of generator under constant load for plug-in miles, but then you have the line losses. So your total savings are maybe 25%/unit distance. Then you have to manufacture batteries is heavy industrial facilities. That’s assuming you only drive your battery length. Also, if you were going to get drive your ICE car 10 years and you only drive a Prius for 6, you have the net manufacturing differences there. Its not a straight trade at all.
Still driving a ’96 Suburban. Very repairable. I despise the new vehicles that can’t be fixed easily.
My 2004 Mazda-badged Ford Ranger will probably still be running in 2024. So far, I’ve replaced a seal in the radiator in addition to changing the oil twice a year and replacing brakes and tires when necessary.
You’re still talking about burning a lot less petroleum. You’re still supporting the scaling of those batteries, their manufacture, and their distribution.
There are other things people do like this, too. They put up solar, they put in geothermal heat pumps, …
Whatever they do, the point is that this is the way to go about it. Maybe you’re not concerned about global warming; I’m not concerned about the million year war against Xenu. That’s something Scientologists worry about a lot though, and if that’s something they’re worried about, libertarians should encourage them to spend their own money doing whatever they think needs to be done.
…especially when there are so many others who seem to want the government to do something about it.
How many Prii actually displace SUVs?
In many cases they’re displacing Corrolla’s and other similar small cars.
The wealthy Soccer Mom’s vehicle of choice used to be an SUV. Consumer tastes have changed, in no small part due to environmental concerns. I think this ids another contributing factor to the US’s declining carbon footprint…
And isn’t that great news to a libertarian? We don’t need the government’s standards, their standards may be playing catch up to what consumers in the free market want–and what entrepreneurial auto manufacturers are building.
Why would a libertarian be reluctant to admit that the free market is better at addressing environmental concerns than the government?
“If you don’t think replacing SUVs with Priuses means throwing less carbon into the atmosphere, then you’re an idiot.”
One more reason not to give a fuck about what ken thinks.
You and Tulpa should go play some miniature golf, have some drinks, go back to your house, and see what happens.
You act just like him.
Yeah Ken, because the entire carbon footprint of a vehicle is measured by the gas it burns and doesn’t include the energy it takes to manufacture it.
Your an idiot Ken.
Are you saying that it takes more energy to make a hybrid than it does to make an SUV or some other kind of car?
If that’s what you’re saying, that’s stupid, John.
Half the energy a car uses in its lifetime is spent building it.
Ken: so were you a Cash for Clunkers fan?
He’ll no, I wasn’t a cash for clunkers fan, but in what way is private individuals buying things with their own money because they care like cash for clunkers?
My understanding is that hybrids still run more than their non-hybrid alternatives of the same model, and the price difference still isn’t justified by the savings in gas over the life of the car. I’ll oppose subsidies all day long, but if people who care about global warming want to address that problem with their consumer purchases, that’s libertarianism in action.
I won’t oppose environmentally minded consumers spending their money on things they care about any more would oppose Mormons giving money to their local temple. Every consumer should be free to make choices for himself–this is the libertarian way.
It is like cash for clunkers because junking your SUV to buy a hybrid car means another car has to be produced. This costs a lot of energy. Just using fuel savings calculation to justify that purchase is not a slam dunk, environmentally. I bought a V6 Accord in 2000. It now has 245,000+ miles on it (resell is essentially nil). I will drive it until it evaporates in a puff of dust, even though I could buy a Volt or whatever if I wanted to.
I’m a Cash for Clunkers fan. I paid six hundred bucks for a used Honda Civic eleven years ago. Still driving it.
But I wish I still had my 65 GTO.
I had a ’64 Plymouth Fury–convertible.
383.
http://www.google.com/imgres?i…..t=6&ndsp=9
This cuts a little close to the bone, I sense.
Ken: when did you purchase your Prius?
I don’t have a Prius, but I put 20,000 miles on a motorcycle last year that gets mileage like a Prius.
Of course, even if I did own a Prius, everything I said would still be true. Libertarianism is a lot of things, but one of the things it isn’t is a redneck reaction to yuppies.
…and individuals who care using their own money to buy things like a Prius is a very libertarian solution.
I take your point. Just busting your balls a little.
“U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions have fallen dramatically in recent years, in large part because the country is making more electricity with natural gas instead of coal.
Energy-related emissions of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is widely believed to contribute to global warming, have fallen 12% between 2005 and 2012 and are at their lowest level since 1994, according to a recent estimate by the Energy Information Administration”
http://online.wsj.com/news/art…..1849503848
Oh, no wonder they want to stop fracking; it ruins their narrative.
They OPPOSE fracking!
And the ones that do? As far as I’m concerned, they’re phony environmentalists!
They’re just trying to drive donations to cover their own salaries and overhead–they sure as hell don’t care, primarily–about the environment.
And we should be calling them out for that all day long.
Which, I believe, Bailey does–quite often.
And, just for the record, I don’t think we should look down our noses at people doing voluntary things–like buying a Prius–to help solve the problems they care about. Those are exactly the kinds of voluntary solutions libertarians should encourage.
I don’t look down my nose at them as a libertarian. I look down my nose at them as an educated person, a motorist, and a male.
I nod politely at the Tesla owners.
And, just for the record, I don’t think we should look down our noses at people doing voluntary things–like buying a Prius–to help solve the problems they care about. Those are exactly the kinds of voluntary solutions libertarians should encourage.
That’s exactly my point Ken. Buying a Prius, or even better a full electric, doesn’t actually help solve the problem. Now the hybrids might do a better job than most in reducing emissions, but cars have never been where most of the CO2 getting put in the atmosphere has come from, that honor goes to residences. Electrics are even worse when you combine the batteries that can’t really be disposed of AND the fact that the electricity has to be created from something.
I’ll stop looking down my nose at their idiocy when they stop being smug about it.
It’s not the entire solution, but how many problem have one total solution.
What’s the solution to crime?
Well, we’ve got the Second Amendment, but that’s not the whole solution, kiss it?
…and does that mean no one should bother buying a handgun?
Of course not, so even if driving a Prius isn’t the complete total solution, I’m not going to discourage people who care from voluntarily doing what they want. Once they give up on voluntary action, you know, they’re not going to stop caring.
They’re just going to give up on voluntary action.
Damn auto correct on a phone makes some silly substitutions.
Is is “kiss”?!
Your starting to sound like Bill Clinton.
So then the temperature must have also risen at a record rate last year, oh, never mind….
Sinners. Sinners everywhere.
Well that’s why we have Indulgences. Sinner’s rejoice.
For the plants.
And yet, there’s still no additional warming. Whodathunkit?
The warming is hiding in the oceans! Deep, deep, in the ocean, biding its time like Cthulhu, waiting to spring forth and destroy the world!!
The Elder Gods are only fucking with us. They like a good joke as much as the next deadly, incomprehensible terror.
“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Warming R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn”
This game is called “I win, you lose.” Unfortunately, the skeptics (through some actual genius PR) get to play the loser.
When it doesn’t support the narrative, like the cool summer, then it’s just weather. Everyone knows that weather isn’t climate.
This phenomenon, known as “narrative forcing” has increased more than 366% in the decade 2003-2013, more than any decade in the last 50 yrs. and is nearly unprecedented in human history.
+1 Prius
“We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud.
Toyota just announced their new hybrid car, the Genuflect.
Ocean Acidification is the next panic, replacing global warming the way global warming replaced global cooling in the 70’s.
Coincidentally, nobody really has a good picture of the ocean’s pH. To date sampling has been confined to populated coastal sections and to bits of the surface. Comprehensive observations are just starting and show a wide variation. And it will take decades of observations to falsify the alarmist claims, since a lack of a baseline gives them full rein to craft arguments from ignorance.
Who knows what human induced cataclysm they will seize upon as a reason to panic after in the likely event that they are wrong again?
I think this muppets song is appropriate. Who do you think you are fooling?
Ha! The full version of the Muppets story is online! Well worth watching to capture how the Green madness operates. 🙂
We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels,”
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA Oh man. This is great. But a distant memory are “global warming” and “global cooling,” now co2 is just making weather more “EXTREME!”
I wonder what the next excuse will be.
Also, I love how WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud proclaims knowledge as though she’s provided falsifiable experiment data to review.
Michel is a man’s name in French.
But then again, so is Jean – may explain their problems.
The amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new record high in 2013, propelled by a surge in levels of carbon dioxide.
We need more sacrifices for the Big Wu.
CO2 makes the pretty flowers grow.
Yes, who speaks for the plants? They’re all for more C02.
Poison Ivy!
Damn you for linking to the worst iteration of Poison Ivy ever.
This
or This would have been acceptable.
*Is THIS why TANFL?
Ah, the insidious Plant Lobby. I blame Citizen’s United.
Yes. It is interesting that algal biofuels research supports an optimum CO2 for growth at approximately 3% concentration. That’s 30000 ppm. There’s a good case for pumping stack gases through a hydroponics farm for efficiency reasons. The net effect on the world would be small. (I did the calculations once for running diesel train exhaust through a semi-closed loop algal system. Based on current yields, you would save more energy by just not adding the weight to the train, but a fixed plant with multiple LNG generators colocated with a water treatment plant could probably create enough biodiesel to run all the service trucks and sell some.)
“”We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels”
Is this true? Is “weather” becoming more extreme? Dare I say “*citation”?