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First glimpse of greenhouse gases comes into view, via The Daily Climate

 

BOULDER, Colo. – Scientists have taken the first crack at solving a fundamental climate mystery, criss-crossing the globe in a souped-up corporate jet to determine where and when greenhouse gases enter and leave the atmosphere.

An understanding of how these climate-warming gases move about the globe is a critical prerequisite for any policy aimed at curbing global warming, scientists said Thursday. Information gained over the next three years will play a crucial role in in sharpening future predictions and improving their accuracy.

Using a high-performance jet, scientists will take a series of “slices” of the atmosphere over the next few years from the Arctic to Antarctic and from the surface to the atmosphere’s upper reaches.

The Greenhouse Effect and the Bathtub Effect, from the New York Times

That characteristic is the “bathtub effect” behind the human-amplified greenhouse effect. Dr. Sterman, a prominent analyst of risk perception and management at the Sloan School, has devised various tools akin to flight simulators to help corporate leaders understand the nature of a variety of problems and choose among various remedies. He recently turned this approach to climate, which he says bears much more resemblance to deficit spending and the national debt than it does to 20th-century-style pollution problems like acid rain.

Fish Poop Helping To Protect Ocean’s Delicate Acid Balance, via Huffington Post Green

WASHINGTON — The ocean’s delicate acid balance may be getting help from an unexpected source, fish poop. The increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere not only drives global warming, but also raises the amount of CO2 dissolved in ocean water, tending to make it more acid, potentially a threat to sea life.

Analysts Warn Emissions Are Growing, via New York Times

 

Planet-warming emissions from industry are on track to grow faster than previous estimates, and delaying reduction measures beyond 2010 would risk triggering dangerous levels of climate change, according to McKinsey & Company, a leading consultancy.

The findings by McKinsey, which are expected to be announced on Monday afternoon in Brussels, appear to reinforce the view of some leading scientists and economists that failing to take action now to reduce emissions could badly hobble economic growth in the future.