: New Report: Reducing Carbon Dioxide to 350 ppm Is Necessary to Avoid Climate Catastrophe

: New Report: Reducing Carbon Dioxide to 350 ppm Is Necessary to Avoid Climate Catastrophe

TIANJIN, China— Reducing carbon dioxide levels to 350 parts per million (ppm) in the Earth’s atmosphere is a necessary, viable step toward preventing catastrophic effects from global climate change, according to a new report. “Not Just a Number: Achieving a CO2 Concentration of 350 ppm or Less to Avoid Catastrophic Climate Impacts” was prepared by the Center for Biological Diversity and350.org to coincide with the international climate talks that opened this week in Tianjin, China.

“Climate change is happening much more quickly than predicted. Even seen in the most optimistic light, pledges made last year in Copenhagen would still lead to unacceptably dangerous levels of CO2 and set off a disastrous chain of events. We have to do better,” said Matt Vespa, a Center attorney and one of the report’s lead authors. “To preserve a planet resembling the one we rely on today, we must reduce atmospheric CO2 to less than 350 ppm. It’s an ambitious goal, but also crucial and achievable.”

Current CO2 levels are about 392 parts per million. Scientists predict that if changes aren’t made soon, it will be impossible to avoid some of the worst effects of global warming, including rising ocean levels, more extreme weather events, water shortages, accelerated species loss and disrupted economies and food supplies.

Regional sea temperature rise and coral bleaching event in Western Caribbean

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101012141929.htm

ScienceDaily (Oct. 13, 2010) — The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Bocas del Toro Research Station and Galeta Point Marine Laboratory are reporting an anomalous sea temperature rise and a major coral bleaching event in the western Caribbean.

Dying Sponges: Abnormal sea temperatures not only affect corals, but also affect other reef organisms like these sponges. (Credit: Arcadio Castillo)

Although the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued an advisory in July announcing above-average sea surface temperatures in the wider Caribbean region, there had been no clear indication of increased sea temperatures in Panama and the western Caribbean until late August-early September.

Scientists and local dive operators first noticed coral bleaching in the waters surrounding Isla Colon in Panama's Bocas del Toro province in July. Smithsonian staff scientist Nancy Knowlton and colleagues documented an extensive bleaching event in late September. Station personnel recorded an extreme sea water temperature of 32 degrees C. Normal temperatures at this time of year are closer to 28 degrees C. This warming event currently affects the entire Caribbean coast of Panama from Kuna-Yala to Bocas del Toro and has also been reported at sites in Costa Rica.

Whale Poop Pumps Up Ocean Health

ScienceDaily (Oct. 11, 2010) — Whale feces -- should you be forced to consider such matters -- probably conjures images of, well, whale-scale hunks of crud, heavy lumps that sink to the bottom. But most whales actually deposit waste that floats at the surface of the ocean, "very liquidy, a flocculent plume," says University of Vermont whale biologist, Joe Roman.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101012101255.htm

A conceptual model of the whale pump. In the common concept of the biological pump, zooplankton feed in the euphotic zone and export nutrients via sinking fecal pellets, and vertical migration. Fish typically release nutrients at the same depth at which they feed. Excretion for marine mammals, tethered to the surface for respiration, is expected to be shallower in the water column than where they feed. (Credit: Peter Roopnarine, Joe Roman, James J. McCarthy. The Whale Pump: Marine Mammals Enhance Primary Productivity in a Coastal Basin. PLoS ONE, 2010; 5 (10): e13255 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013255)