350.org - taking a fresh look at CO2 emissions

Read a recent article at Scientific American, that a good friend of mine forwarded to me, that takes another look at CO2 emissions. It brings up some issues that are... well, disconcerting to say the least.

The article suggests that the commonly-touted concensus CO2 target of 450ppm (how did we exactly come to that value anyway?) may not be the safe level just off the current political horizon that we were expecting. It's no secret that the planet-level simulation of global warming is not an exact science, something that many governments and interest groups cynically used to their advantage to discredit the whole theory - check out the Competitive Enterprise Institute's take for a laugh. However, work done by James Hansen at NASA's Goddard Institute (the same guys who started up the initial CO2 models for use in analysing Jupiter's atmosphere) suggests that the CO2 levels we are at now (around 380ppm) are already dangerously high - and could lead to a dynamic runaway of temperatures, bad news for the biome of this planet. He suggests that the planet needs to get down to 350ppm, and fast.

More doom and gloom? Easy to interpret like that, however his research has inspired the 350.org movement, aimed at raising global awareness for returning the planet to 350ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. Well worth having a look at it, although you would be forgiven to believe that the recent financial crisis has reversed global warming, as coverage in the media has fallen off the radar. The test of our species is upon us: comfortable retirement for the lucky few % of the world's population; or the planet - you be the judge.



Some interesting implications for wind power, I'm planning on talking a little about what this could mean for the industry in practical terms in a future post, stay tuned.