Ancient Climate Studies Suggest We're On Fast Track To Global Warming
Human activities are releasing greenhouse gases
more than 30 times faster than the rate of emissions that triggered a period of
extreme global warming in the Earth's past...
Human activities are releasing greenhouse gases more than 30 times faster than the rate of emissions that triggered a period of extreme global warming in the Earth's past, according to an expert on ancient climates.
"The emissions that caused this past episode of global warming probably lasted 10,000 years. By burning fossil fuels, we are likely to emit the same amount over the next three centuries," said James Zachos, professor of Earth sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Previous estimates put the amount of released carbon at 2 trillion tons, but Zachos showed that more than twice that amount--about 4.5 trillion tons--entered the atmosphere over a period of 10,000 years (Science, June 10, 2005). If present trends continue, this is the same amount of carbon that industries and automobiles will emit during the next 300 years, Zachos said.
"We set out to test the hypotheses put forward by a small group of geochemists who model the global carbon cycle, and our findings support their predictions," Zachos said. "It will take tens of thousands of years before atmospheric carbon dioxide comes down to preindustrial levels. Even after humans stop burning fossil fuels, the effects will be long lasting."
But, if your main concern in life is the stock price for Exxon-Mobil or Halliburton, how foolish we are to expect a constructive and pro-active response to this information.
Posted: Fri - February 17, 2006 at 06:22 AM