Friday, July 27, 2007

Climatewatch: positive feedback cycles III

It seems that though ozone in the upper layers of the atmosphere (our UV shield) is still being depleted, its concentration in the lower layers in increasing. This contributes to creating yet another positive feedback cycle for global warming by hampering plant growth and their ability to absorb CO2:
Increasing near-surface ozone ups climate change

Though striving to only refer back to reputable sources and studies (and not just hypothesis or seemingly reasonable speculations) it is still difficult to discern how much of an impact many of these factors have. The overall picture painted does however point out that the process is accelerating and, whether we acknowledge them or not, with good data and measurement or not, and publish in reputable journals or not, the system is more complex and crossing new thresholds only brings uncertainty one step closer.
The Chinese have this character (Wei Ji) that means both "crisis" and "opportunity". I am yet to learn how to see these times I live in as an opportunity.

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