Archives for April 24, 2008

THE amount of two key greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere rose sharply in 2007, and carbon dioxide levels this year are literally off the chart, the US government reported today.

In its annual index of greenhouse gas emissions, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found atmospheric carbon dioxide rose by 0.6 per cent, or 19 billion tonnes last year.

The amount of methane increased by 0.5 per cent, or 27 million tonnes, after nearly a decade of little or no change, according preliminary figures to scientists at the government’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Colorado.

News.com.au:Carbon dioxide levels ‘off the chart’

AN Adelaide professor says scientists must do more to stand up to “anti-intellectual” climate change deniers, by explaining the difference between good science and spin.

University of Adelaide Professor Barry Brook, director of the Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability, said in climate science and policy there were still a few apparently well-educated people who continued to deny the vast body of scientific knowledge and analysis.

The original Australasian Science article is here:

Make a Stand for Good Science

The Adelaide Now article is here.

Professor Brook feels the need to quote alarmist blogger Joe Romm who has recently made science policy expert Roger Pielke Jr the focus of repeated attacks, calling him a ‘delayer.’

Of ‘deniers’ he said, “They are hard to pin down because they don’t want a serious scientific debate.”

That’s odd – I thought the debate was over. He also stoops to the tired old tobacco and oil smears.

I think I’d sum up Professor Brook’s article as lacking substance and a severe case of ‘pot calling the kettle black.’