Humanity has caused the count to go from 295 ppm during the year 1900 to 391 ppm this February 2011. That is a 31% increase. However, just the amount of coal and oil burned since then accounts for a 40.5% increase. Put another way, if the air remained at 1 sea level pressure, it would be about 8,500 meters thick. In 1900, there was 2.507 meters of CO2. Now, there is an additional 1 meter of pure CO2 mixed in the air not accounting for natural gas either. Clearly, something is absorbing CO2 at a rate that is not nearly adequate to keep up with us.
This article states the obvious, that China and India will eventually grossly out consume us. Therefore, shouldn’t we be alarmed about the sudden, and now accelerating, growth rate of CO2? No matter what ANYBODY says, it is STILL an infrared absorber…
Speaking about California being a leader in renewable energy, many say “why bother, China and India is consuming more fossil fuels anyways”. To that I reply how then will we ever make RE tech compete with FF’s if we don’t try? Eventually, FF demand will out pace supply and we had better have a good (and cheap) RE backup plan.
Solar energy, as made today, will never do any real good…
The point is, we need a global consensus that seeks to make RE collection and storage as cheap as possible, by use of vertically integrated companies which employ all departments and phases of the operation including massive robotic factories.