“0.04% - not 1% not 1/2% - a fraction of a fraction and the Chicken Littles want us to believe that we’ll soon be living on Venus ! ! ! ”
It’s actually still under 0.04%, but that’s a percentage which is rapidly rising. Up until about 1750, the number had been about 0.0275, and flat. 50 years later (1800) it was about 0.0280, in 1850 it was 0.0287, in 1900 it was 0.0295, in 1950 it was about 0.310. It hit 0.0325 in about 1970, 0.0350 in about 1985, 0.0375 in about 2002. We’ll hit 0.040 soon, and the rate of increase is itself increasing drastically.
The fact that CO2 is essential for photosynthesis would be a lot more reassuring if we weren’t cutting down rainforests and killing the algae fields in the oceans. The rain forests are being replaced with pastureland, of course, which means cows which means methane. Methane is also a greenhouse gas, and since 1750 methane concentrations in the atmosphere have increased 150%.
Also, when you’re talking about around 78% of the atmosphere is Nitrogen. The oxygen we live on is only about 21%. So the increases in the greenhouse gases have been taking place within that approximately 1% of the air that ISN’T those two.
“0.04% - not 1% not 1/2% - a fraction of a fraction and the Chicken Littles want us to believe that we’ll soon be living on Venus ! ! ! ”
It’s actually still under 0.04%, but that’s a percentage which is rapidly rising. Up until about 1750, the number had been about 0.0275, and flat. 50 years later (1800) it was about 0.0280, in 1850 it was 0.0287, in 1900 it was 0.0295, in 1950 it was about 0.310. It hit 0.0325 in about 1970, 0.0350 in about 1985, 0.0375 in about 2002. We’ll hit 0.040 soon, and the rate of increase is itself increasing drastically.
Here’s where I got my numbers.
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7aCO2.html
The fact that CO2 is essential for photosynthesis would be a lot more reassuring if we weren’t cutting down rainforests and killing the algae fields in the oceans. The rain forests are being replaced with pastureland, of course, which means cows which means methane. Methane is also a greenhouse gas, and since 1750 methane concentrations in the atmosphere have increased 150%.
Also, when you’re talking about around 78% of the atmosphere is Nitrogen. The oxygen we live on is only about 21%. So the increases in the greenhouse gases have been taking place within that approximately 1% of the air that ISN’T those two.