Deep ice tells long climate story

[cal04]

Carbon dioxide levels are substantially higher now than at anytime in the last 800,000 years, the latest study of ice drilled out of Antarctica confirms.

The in-depth analysis of air bubbles trapped in a 3.2km-long core of frozen snow shows current greenhouse gas concentrations are unprecedented.

The East Antarctic core is the longest, deepest ice column yet extracted.

Project scientists say its contents indicate humans could be bringing about dangerous climate changes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5314592.stm

[Boomer]

1. Journalists still lag behind

>> More CO2 absorbed by the oceans will raise their pH, and a number of recent studies have concluded that this increase in acidity will eventually disrupt the ability of marine micro-organisms to use the calcium carbonate in the water to produce their hard parts. <<

Not eventually. Already happening.

[hatrack]

3. Hell's bells, I was posting on this four months ago

And they're just NOW catching up with the details - little things like, oh, I dunno - the entire Pacific Ocean growing 25% more acidic in the space of ten years.

Unbelievable.

[Boomer]

4. Hacks, not journalists

Science reporting is pablum, written by hacks (not to be confused with "hatracks") who don't understand their subject and have no more knowledge than what is currently right in their face. Forget "research", they just jot down what their interviewee says and consider the job done.

Kind of like their political "reporting" based on White House press releases.

[bananas]

2. Yikes!

The "scary thing", he added, was the rate of change now occurring in CO2 concentrations. In the core, the fastest increase seen was of the order of 30 parts per million (ppm) by volume over a period of roughly 1,000 years.

"The last 30 ppm of increase has occurred in just 17 years. We really are in the situation where we don't have an analogue in our records," he said.

[Dead_Parrot]

6. Not as scary as this...

The increase in 2005 was 2.6 ppm: The next 30ppm increase would only take 12 years, at that rate. Probably closer to 10 years in reality.

It's still accelerating.

[screembloodymurder]

5. We're doomed.

And that's my most optimistic assessment.