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The World Meteorological Organization issued a press release about its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin:
Globally averaged concentrations of CO2 reached 403.3 parts per million in 2016, up from 400.00 ppm in 2015 because of a combination of human activities and a strong El Niño event. [...]
[...] Since 1990, there has been a 40% increase in total radiative forcing – the warming effect on our climate - by all long-lived greenhouse gases, and a 2.5% increase from 2015 to 2016 alone, according to figures from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration quoted in the bulletin.
[...] Atmospheric methane reached a new high of about 1 853 parts per billion (ppb) in 2016 and is now 257% of the pre-industrial level.
BBC News reported:
"The 3 ppm CO2 growth rate in 2015 and 2016 is extreme - double the growth rate in the 1990-2000 decade," Prof Euan Nisbet from Royal Holloway University of London told BBC News.
[...] Another concern in the report is the continuing, mysterious rise of methane levels in the atmosphere, which were also larger than the average over the past ten years.
The Aliso Canyon gas leak happened in 2016.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @12:08PM (7 children)
we have woken the beast, from now on it will make little difference how much CO2 and CH4 we emit ourselves :(
Next: prepare for rapid rise of the sea level.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @12:38PM
And catastrophic storm surges, don't forget them.
You mean our Runaway [soylentnews.org]?
That's tough, you better try driving into a wall next time.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @01:08PM (4 children)
If we really are at the top of the cycle (which it looks like +/- 10k years or so[1]), I think the expectation is for icecaps to melt to a greater extent thus leading to the flooding you mention. However, this should lead to more moisture -> increased precipitation -> bigger snowfalls -> increased albedo -> glacial period. I don't think anyone has worked it out precisely though, so it is difficult to test.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vostok_420ky_4curves_insolation.jpg [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 4, Informative) by Snow on Thursday November 02 2017, @03:23PM (3 children)
Meh, it's not that hard to test. We are doing it right now. Just wait and see!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @05:11PM (2 children)
A proper test requires a control group. I wonder where you get that from.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 02 2017, @07:16PM (1 child)
How did any astronomy ever get done in your world?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 03 2017, @04:31PM
or cosmology :)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday November 03 2017, @01:37AM
That's certainly not going to make me want climate change mitigation more. Still I have to wonder, how exactly is runaway climate change supposed to differ from the non-runaway version?