[Vision2020] Solid Science Reinforces Need To Reduce CO2

[Ted Moffett]

All:

A recent report in the November 25, 2005 edition of "Science"
magazine, volume 310, focusing on ice core
samples from Antarctica, provides more scientific backing to support the
need to reduce human sourced
CO2 emissions into our atmosphere, to lessen the impact of "greenhouse
effect" caused global warming.

This volume of "Science" contains several articles focused on the study of
ice core samples related to
climate change and CO2, etc.

In the first paragraph of an article titled "Tiny Bubbles" (a title no doubt
aimed at making the article more
friendly for the general non-technical reader), authored by Edward J. Brook,
on page 1285, the following quote appears.  Web link to article first:

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:Yv0eumtbdAYJ:www.climate.unibe.ch/~stocker/papers/brook05sci.pdf+science+vol.+310+page+1313&hl=en


"Until recently, the longest of the ice core records (from Vostok station in
Antarctica) extended back
440,000 years (1).  Now, reports by Siegenthaler et. al. on page 1313 (2)
and by Spahni et. al. on page
1317 (3) extend our window into the past an additional 210,000 years."

This quote in volume 310 of "Science" makes it perfectly clear the time span
involved in the reports from the
ice core samples from this same volume of "Science" extend to 650,000 years
ago, not before.

The possibility of taking ice core samples from earlier periods in Earth's
history is discussed in the New
Scientist article at the web link below, along with some results of the
findings reported in "Science," volume 310, that
current atmospheric CO2 levels are higher than at any time in the past
650,000 years:

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8369

Also from this New Scientist web site article is the following quote derived
from information in the ice core sample study
published in the same volume of "Science," providing increasing evidence
that human sourced CO2 is dramatically altering atmospheric CO2 levels:

"Today's level of 380 parts per million of carbon dioxide is 27% above its
previous peaks of about 300 ppm,
according to the team led by Thomas Stocker of the University of Bern in
Switzerland."

The same New Scientist article makes it clear that these figures apply to
the last 650,000 years, when stating:

"The frozen record of the Earth's atmosphere is 3270 metres long and covers
the last 650,000 years – 50%
longer than before. It was obtained from the tiny air bubbles trapped in a
deep ice core from Antarctica."
------------------------
Ted Moffett
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