350

In my dream last night, all I saw was 350...350...350...

In the book of Genesis, it states that on the 7th day god rested and said, "Damn, I did good!" At that point, scientists say, through the science of carbon dioxode emission measurements through ice samples, that the amount of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere hovered around 275ppm (parts per million).

Then, for those that watch the TV Show "Survivor", understand that there actually was a place god created called Eden. It was somewhere in Africa near an area we call, Gabon. Then, god made man... and 350ppm...

In the broad scheme of our planet's time line, if relating things to our clock, the time of humans on this planet is near 11:59:59. We are a small blip in the timeline.

350ppm...

About 4 Billion years have past in the age of the planet. It was only a few hundred years ago, in the late 18th century, that man began using fossil fuels to any measurable extent. The first time we began measuring the carbon dioxide emissions was in the 1950's. At that time, the results were around 315ppm. To date, it hovers around 385ppm and growing approximately 2ppm each year.

This year, sea ice the size of the state of Maine or 32,700 square miles melts every day, in the month of August. It has gone up from 24,400 square miles a day lost in August 2007. It just breaks away from the Arctic and falls into the ocean and begins melting. It is estimate that by the year 2070, all of the arctic ice will be gone.

The ice reflects the sun so that the heat doesn't stay in our atmosphere. The blue water absorbs the sun so that more heat remains. We call it global warming.

There was a report released in April of 2007 by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It showed a dramatic increase in methane gas into our atmosphere. I discussed this issue a bit in the article entitled What Does a Lame Duck President, Bullshit, and Poultry Have in Common?

The world understands that we must cut global CO2 emissions. President Bush doesn't. ExxonMobile CEO Rex Tillerson stated, in the annual meeting for the company in the spring of this year, that he envisioned a world that still used fossil fuels for 2/3'rds of its power into the year 2030. The stock holders applauded. ExxonMobile had a profit of nearly $11 Billion, in the first quarter of this year.

During the company's annual meeting, a chunk of ice the size of Colorado fell into the ocean.

350ppm...

Just so you can put things into perspective, take a look at this video of the arctic sea ice melting. In August—the fastest recorded melting ever undid the gains of the winter. Here's what it looked like:





A warming Arctic causes the surface water to get warmer, which delays the onset of freeze up in the winter and leads to a shorter period of ice growth. Without the chance to thicken, sea ice becomes thinner and more vulnerable to continued melt.

350ppm...




This, the 221th entry in bloggoland! Thanks for reading and coming back. I always enjoy the comments, emails and the banter!!


(c)Copyright 2008 Doug Boggs

No left turn on solid green...

The shipping company United Parcel Service did a study in 2004 and announced that their drivers would avoid making left turns. It was determined that this act will be a way to curb CO2 emissions. The reasoning behind this is that the time spent idling while waiting for oncoming traffic burns fuel. Now, for a company of this size, this fuel can become a substantial amount of millions each year. They devised a software program to map out the necessary customized routes for their drivers to minimize the left turns. Through enacting this process, in New York City, the company reduced their emissions by 1,000 metric tons in the first six months of 2007. Today, 83% of all of the UPS facilities are headed in this direction. Within 2 years the policy will become national to the company.

Another example of insight and thinking outside the box...or around the packaging...

Greenland is melting...

Chicken little does not need to look up, although he may need a snorkel and fins here shortly. Shortly is a relative term, but it is a term that means it is coming...

I found a link for you to look at that discusses the receding ice in Greenland. Funny how Greenland is covered in ice and Iceland has a lot of green land on it...

This article from the NY times discusses the global warming issues in Greenland and the melting icecaps. I will add that this is not to say that man is the cause, however, at this time based on our use of fossil fuels we are certainly not the solution. Our neglect to pay attention to this matter and to begin to zero out our carbon emissions as our global population continues to increase, and our demand for energy, we will find ourselves accelerating the issue if we do not find other cleaner fuels to maintain our lifestyles globally.
Greenland, Ice and Instability is a powerful article on the realities of what is happening to our planet today. There are scientists that say that man is not the cause of this, which could be true, but again, we are certainly not trying to become a solution at this time either. Perhaps a bit more conscious work towards accepting this fact and we might find it in ourselves to create some change.