Blowing past the 400 ppm CO2 milestone, climate fears intensify

Scientists and science journalists are noting a significant moment today — the first time in maybe more than 3 million years that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere exceeded 400 parts per million on a daily average.

While there still are some scientists and a significant percentage of the American people who are not worried about greenhouse gas levels and the climate chaos that’s predicted to come our way, Robert Kunzig in National Geographic writes:

The last time the concentration of Earth’s main greenhouse gas reached this mark, horses and camels lived in the high Arctic. Seas were at least 30 feet higher—at a level that today would inundate major cities around the world.

The planet was about 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer. But the Earth then was in the final stage of a prolonged greenhouse epoch, and CO2 concentrations were on their way down. This time, 400 ppm is a milepost on a far more rapid uphill climb toward an uncertain climate future.

Think of it another way. This is a first for human history, and the latest data point in what has to be the biggest uncontrolled scientific experience in in planetary history.

The Washington Post’s Capital Weather Gang writes:

Manmade emissions of carbon dioxide have increased the atmospheric concentration of CO2 from around 270 to 280 ppm in the late 1700s to today’s record high level – a 43 percent increase.

The milestone is symbolic. I mean, what’s the difference between 400 ppm and 399 ppm?

But humans sometimes react to milestones because, well, they’re milestones. They stand out and cause one to pause and think.

For people who are concerned about climate, today’s news will likely be sobering. Many environmentalists have been frustrated with the lack of progress on a meaningful international treaty or even climate legislation in the U.S. Congress.

But Jonathan Chait wrote a provocative piece in New York Magazine this week titled, “Why Obama May Actually be the Environmental President.” It essentially defended the president and offered a prediction how how his administration might move on its own to deal with the problem, using the Clean Air Act. It included the following:

As it happens, after decades of rising, carbon-dioxide emissions in the United States started falling in 2008. They have kept falling. By the end of last year, emissions had fallen almost 12 percent below the 2005 level. That is to say, with 12 percent of the 17 percent drop having already occurred, and seven more years to go until the target date, the U.S. is two-thirds of the way to its environmental goal after just one-third of the time has passed. If you follow this measure, climate policy looks like a runaway success.

The article goes on to predict Obama will follow the lead of the Natural Resources Defense Council and order the EPA “to regulate existing power plants in a way that was neither ineffectual nor draconian:”

The proposal would set state-by-state limits on emissions. It sounds simple, but this was a conceptual breakthrough. Much like a cap-and-trade bill, it would allow market signals to indicate the most efficient ways for states to hit their targets—instead of shutting coal plants down, some utilities might pay consumers to weatherize their homes, while others might switch some of their generators over to cleaner fuels. The flexibility of the scheme would, in turn, reduce the costs passed on to consumers. Here is a way for Obama to use his powers—his own powers, unencumbered by the morass of a dysfunctional Congress—in such a way that is neither as ineffectual as a firecracker nor as devastating as a nuke: The NRDC calculates its plan would reduce our reliance on coal by about a quarter and national carbon emissions by 10 percent.

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http://blogs.courier-journal.com/watchdogearth/2013/05/10/blowing-past-the-400-ppm-milestone-climate-fears-intensify/