Several recent studies have highlighted the possibility that the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems have started loosing part of their ability to sequester a large proportion of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions. This is an important claim, because so far only about 40% of those emissions have stayed in the atmosphere, which has prevented additional climate change. This study re-examines the available atmospheric CO2 and emissions data including their uncertainties. It is shown that with those uncertainties, the trend in the airborne fraction since 1850 has been 0.7 ± 1.4% per decade, i.e. close to and not significantly different from zero. The analysis further shows that the statistical model of a constant airborne fraction agrees best with the available data if emissions from land use change are scaled down to 82% or less of their original estimates. Despite the predictions of coupled climate-carbon cycle models, no trend in the airborne fraction can be found.Pay no attention to those Deniers at Geophysical Research Letters, they're clearly funded by Big Oil or something.
Hat tip: Roger Pielke, Jr.
What makes you think this is a good thing? Y'know what you get when you pour lots of CO2 into lots of water? You get a dilute solution of carbonic acid, which has perceptible effects on sea life. As the concentration of CO2 in seawater rises, the pH falls noticeably, producing all kinds of generally-unpleasant effects.
ReplyDelete