This story is all over the news here, I don't really want to comment on it but it saddens me greatly that it's happening   

Record surge in atmospheric CO2 seen in 2016

My question is whether it's caused by increased CO² emissions, or increased deforestation. Still waking up, so haven't read the entire article, but skimming through it I saw little to answer that. Once I wake up a bit more I'll take a longer look.

  I'm so old I just say let the kids worry about it, I'm enjoying the warmer winters we've been having here, much better than having to move to Florida.  I think Dave has a point with the deforestation and I'll bring up all the paper that is just plain wasted through junk mail and all the advertising that seems has to be done, probably a tax rebate involved.  Lots of plastics and fake wood taking the place of real wood now a days, maybe that will help.
Carl2

so... Let the kids worry about the problem? How kind of you! And using dinosaurs to make wood? Yeah, probably not a long term solution there, either.

Don't get upset, Carl. I'm just poking the bear a little.

Ok, I had a chance to read the article, and what I got from it is that CO² emissions from man-made sources has dropped over the past several years, which is good, but that means that the oceans and plants, which make up the vast majority of "CO² sinks" (mechanisms that remove the gas from our atmosphere), are no longer able to do their job properly. There's a tipping point where it won't be possible to "fix" things. I don't know if we're there yet, but this is pretty damning evidence that either we're there, or at least we're close. Excess CO² in the air leads to the "Greenhouse Effect" that took out Venus early on in it's history, and while we're not likely to get as hot as our sister planet, it's likely to get too hot to support life as we know it, and could well mean the extinction of Humans if it's allowed to progress.
Sobering thoughts, yes?

Dave, that's a pretty dark picture you painted, now I feel even worse  but thanks for your input, sometimes we need a kick in the backside to actually open our eyes and see what is going on.

Fortunately as we humans are quite intelligent I remain an optimist, maybe we (the humans) can use our brains and science to do something about it, I feel that we might have to in the not too distant future.

As things stand now if everyone did their bit then maybe we would be able to slow global warming down enough to dodge the possible coming disasters.

I live in hope but also think that unless we can make "going green" save people money then most people will just ignore the problem, in which case we are doomed 

     

I've signed a few government petitions to stop things like waste going into the sea. I was aware that algae and things probably do more than trees, but that's getting screwed up by things like plastics ending up in the sea and damaging the ecosystem. Sorry I don't sound like a scientist do I 

But love or loath social media, there are things that are being achieved by campaigns that tackle even the most little things, like asking the government to ban plastic straws which I signed the other day and big companies like Coke to think about different types of bottles. And some of these campaigns do work or at least raises awareness.

the idea of convincing Coke to rethink bottle construction is nice, but that's not really where the problem lies. Where awareness needs to be raised, and real change needs to occur is in getting the wankers who toss them about like so many daisies to stop, and I don't think that's going to happen unless we as a whole bring back shaming and shunning. Back in the day (and I'm talking before our great grandparents' time) those were effective tools for behaviour modification. Screw the "humane treatment" whiners! Bring back the STOCKS!

North Korea Could Drop Nuclear Bombs on Western Europe   another headline we can worry about,  since I always liked to play with small cannons when I was young I can somewhat relate to him.  I'm thinking over population is also a problem.
Carl2

@Dave

I agree there about that people shouldn't dump stuff, but that campaign has been going on since I was a kid. I don't know who the worst offenders are but doing something to counter the ecological impact of discarded plastics must surely be a good thing too.

@Carl

I think there's a bit of a gap between kids games and nuclear assault, but maybe not  I liked driving around and doing jumps in the cars in Grand Theft Auto, but I don't go down the local airport and do that. Well, not yet...

Freddy,
  As far as I know he is testing rockets, as far as I know none of them has had a nuclear war head.  I think he is breaking some type of international agreement but if he doesn't want to live by that agreement what can we say.  England backed out of the Euro market, Trump didn't join the global warming group.  During Christ's time and likely before it was Peace on Earth, I wonder if we are any closer to that now than then.
Carl2

Quote from: Carl2 on October 31, 2017, 23:08:28 PM
Trump didn't join the global warming group. 

That too is a sad fact 

Fortunately his days are numbered, the last time I looked into it the USA was a democracy, he will at some point be voted out or forced out (after two terms).

In the meantime there are some smart Americas that are doing the right things for the planets future. Which gives me hope.

As for North Korea they don't have hardly any cars or electricity, I don't really see them contributing to global warming on any large scale. Their leaders latest antics are no more than saber rattling, my bomb is bigger than your bomb, I look at it as a small cold war.

Quote from: Carl2 on October 31, 2017, 23:08:28 PM
England backed out of the Euro market,

Yes the UK did vote to leave, we didn't want to be part of a United States Of Europe, our democracy is strong enough, we want to make our own laws and rules, ultimately the British people will decide our future. Right now the UK is trying to remove coal from the energy equation and has recently become the world leader in offshore wind farms. The UK isn't perfect by any means but we are trying to do the right thing 
     

Well I will carry on with this with just a little up-date.

QuoteGlobal emissions of CO2 in 2017 are projected to rise for the first time in four years, dashing hopes that a peak might soon be reached.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-41941265