I was reading an article quoting NASA's Jim Hansen yesterday where he said:
Quote:
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Improved forestry and agricultural practices could then bring atmospheric carbon dioxide back to 350 ppm (parts per million) or less, as required for a stable climate.
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Copenhagen summit: Is there any real chance of averting the climate crisis? | Comment is free | The Observer
I thought it interesting that he came up with a magic number like that so I started googling co2 information over several hundred thousand years. The record reflects a cyclic rising and fall of co2 concentrations over several hundred thousand years with corresponding ice ages and warming periods. The co2 levels were pretty consistent with a low of 190 ppm and a high of 290 ppm. See here:
CO2 vs Temperature: Last 400,000 years
Holy cow! Look at that spike at the far left of the graph showing our recent surge to 380 ppm. My gut tells me we humans introduced an influence that is going to cause a temporary imbalance. I would expect that we will see a reflex of some sort to start absorbing and locking away all this recent co2 released, whether it's more frequent algae blooms or something else, but I would anticpate some sort consequence. I don't know whether the consequence with be good or bad, but I expect we'll know in the next few generations.