Interesting article, both the video and text. Once again, I see nothing that spells doom and disaster, just an early onset of warmer weather. It was interesting how at the end of both the text and video, they gave flimsy reasons why this early summer (which has only been seen in 6/10 of the past springs, hardly enough to find any long term trend) might be bad. The gentleman in the video says that some species are at their northern range limits and changes in the British climate might hurt them, though I have a feeling that most species at their northern limits will welcome warmer weather! I think it was the text that tried to say that erratic weather might bring out early flowers, which would then bring out early insects who might then die off due to a sudden cold snap, thus eliminating food for larger animals. Insects have a tendency to be highly resilient, so it doubtful (IMO) that any of the insectivores around the English countryside will be negatively affected. In fact, the insectivores will probably get a jump start on gathering food for their young, thus having higher than normal juvenile survival rates, which points directly to my theory that somewhat warmer weather is good for everyone by providing a somewhat longer growing season. Thanks for the article though Shakkai, its always good to see what is happening around the world!

The observations and trends that are recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii ( Trends in Carbon Dioxide ) have been picked up by a couple of the newspapers here in the UK:

World carbon dioxide levels highest for 650,000 years, says US report | Environment | The Guardian

It is worrying to think that the earth's systems might be losing their ability to reabsorb the carbon output we are producing.

Very interesting article and link to the NOAA website regarding Mauna Loa. Its definitely a more troubling article than I was expecting! If CO2 really is the highest its been in 650,000 years and there's evidence that the carbon scrubbing critters of the planet are having trouble keeping up, then that gets my attention!

Steve, I'm happy that you've found it useful. I think that's what this thread is all about.

There will be a conference in Boulder, Colorado in the next few days. Some of the topics to be presented at the conference include:

The global CO2 growth rate is increasing exponentially with a doubling rate of 30 years explaining why the growth rate has gone from less than 1 ppm/year to more than 2 ppm/yr in 40 years; atmospheric CO2 concentrations may reach 700 ppm by 2100 if present trends continue; the growth rate of some HCFCs have accelerated substantially in the past few years; stratospheric aerosol concentrations have increased 50% between 2000 and 2008 even in the absence of volcanic inputs; the permafrost in the Arctic Coastal Plain near Barrow, AK has warmed 40 C since 1977; and the growth rate of methane, the second most important greenhouse gas, has started to increase after holding steady for the past decade. To see the agenda for the meeting and to view the abstracts go to: ESRL/GMD 2008 Annual Conference

I think that there is likely to be more coverage of this in the coming week(s). If I find more info, I'll be sure to post it.