tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941560477618551520.post8308256300612277598..comments2023-11-05T05:13:10.901-06:00Comments on Pete'sPlace On Global Warming/Climate Change: Atmospheric CO2 Levels Follow Temperature, Data Clearly Shows....Peterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12792460740514151650noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941560477618551520.post-59895200516517447562010-02-17T01:23:25.887-06:002010-02-17T01:23:25.887-06:00I would have to concur with Steve on the point tha...I would have to concur with Steve on the point that the rapid rise of human caused CO2 creates a different scenario than we've seen in the past. Yes, CO2 does usually follow a rise in temperatures, and then through a positive-feedback process may reinforce that rise. But we've seen a nearly instant (geologically speaking) rise in CO2, and we are indeed entering unknown territory. We are conducted a great experiment on the natural cycles...the results of which no one can predict at this point...Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05196799671666148588noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941560477618551520.post-63211710055078563612010-01-15T09:56:43.068-06:002010-01-15T09:56:43.068-06:00Steve,
Thanks for your thoughtful comments, howeve...Steve,<br />Thanks for your thoughtful comments, however your tone and language reveal you to be an ideological alarmist, a true believer, blind to common sense and reason.<br /><br />I hope you do not practice medicine with the same irrational form of thinking expressed by your fear of man-caused global warming, or if you prefer, climate change.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12792460740514151650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941560477618551520.post-45628919962204692562010-01-15T07:25:50.043-06:002010-01-15T07:25:50.043-06:00A few thoughts
1. The long-term charts show dram...A few thoughts<br /><br />1. The long-term charts show dramatic oscillations in temperature and CO2. Some use this to suggest the current changes are merely part of a long-term pattern. What's staring us in the face with these charts, however, is that the current changes in CO2 are unpredented in magnitude and rapidity.<br /><br />2. The observation that natural temperature increases <b>precede </b> CO2 increases is interesting. I think it's too optimistic an analysis to think simply that CO2 increases can't or don't raise temperatures. I think the more likely interpretation is that elevations in CO2 and temperature in natural cycles reinforce each other (at least until these maximums in temp happen). If so, then an artificial rise in CO2 would be a trigger to increases in global temperatures, and a hyper-rapid rise, as we're seeing now, would be expected to create a hyper-rapid rise in temperature.<br /><br />That is, admittedly, just hypothesis. What's clearly evident from the data, though, is that over the very long term, natural cycles of temp and CO2 suggest that mutual positive feedback mechanisms likely exist to create swings both upward and then downwards.<br /><br />Offhand, I can only think of one kind of mechanism that could explain why rising temperatures would raise CO2--an alteration in ocean waters. Warmer waters are less soluble to gases, including CO2 and methane (methane released into the atmosphere eventually reacts to form H2O and CO2). Increases in ocean acidity would also favor release of CO2 from water to air by simple chemical equilibrium. Warmer, more acidic surface waters could create a net release of CO2. <br /><br />If these warmer, more acidic waters become less hospitable to phytoplankton, then less CO2 absorption would also happen.<br /><br />Note that the phrase "less hospitable to phytoplankton" is potentially a euphemism for mass oceanic ecosystem devastation. Such events are known to have happened in association with warmer periods in the geological past.<br /><br />Note that at warmer temperatures, with absent polar icecaps, ocean mixing between surface and deep waters may essentially cease. With minimal mixing of deep and surface waters, it then becomes possible for surface acidity and temp to increase more dramatically than would happen otherwise--creating a strong positive feedback effect.<br /><br />Systems dominated by positive feedback mechanisms show oscillations (any kind of system). Most systems which show oscillations do so by virtue of positive feedback mechanisms.<br /><br />Systems dominated by positive feedback mechanisms are intrinsically unstable--an explosion is a chemical positive feedback mechanism, for example.<br /><br />The metaphor may sound alarmist, but a very reasonable interpretation of these data suggests that human-created increases CO2 already constitute the activation of a detonation cord in an unstable climate system.<br /><br />If so, then the challenge facing us as a species is to ADAPT to now inevitable dramatic changes, not try to extinguish an ignition already triggered.<br /><br />Steve Coulter, MD<br />SteveMDFP -at- gmail -dot- comSteveMDFPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02023680327735781469noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5941560477618551520.post-90271319418721539402008-03-04T19:49:00.000-06:002008-03-04T19:49:00.000-06:00This was really useful. Thanks for your help!! :)...This was really useful. Thanks for your help!! :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com