The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a record high, according to the latest figures released by an internationally regarded measuring station in the Arctic.
The measurements suggest that the main greenhouse gas is continuing to increase in the atmosphere at an alarming rate despite the downturn in dip in the rate of increase of the global economy.
Levels of the gas at the Zeppelin research station on Svalbard, northern Norway, last week peaked at over 397 parts per million (ppm), an increase of more than 2.5ppm on 2008. They have since begun to reduce and today stand at 393.7ppm. Prior to the industrial revolution, CO2 levels were around 280ppm.
And the second:
The thickness of sea ice in the Arctic dramatically declined last winter for the first time since records began in the early 1990s. The research by British scientists shows a significant loss in the thickness of the northern ice cap after the record loss of ice in the summer of 2007, although the weather was not abnormally warm.
The findings, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, raise the possibility that the loss of the Arctic sea ice could accelerate, because as the ice recedes the water temperature rises. This summer the sea ice recorded its second-lowest extent after the record low of 2007, again despite relatively cool air temperatures.
As a result, Polar Bears are facing severe habitat loss that will ultimately lead to their extinction unless they receive federal protection status. Yet in spite of this, secretary of the Interior Department Ken Salazar has decided to keep in place a Bush-era rule that restricts the government from doing anything to preserve the bears' natural habitat, according to an article in The New York Times:
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced today that he will retain the Bush administration's controversial rule on polar bear protections, rejecting special authority given to him by Congress and the pleas of Democratic lawmakers, environmentalists and scientists to overturn the regulation.
While keeping the rule -- which limits use of the Endangered Species Act to curb emissions of greenhouse gases -- Salazar held open the possibility of adding habitat protections for the polar bear later.
Salazar is using a ludicrous excuse for keeping the Bush rule intact.
"When the ESA was passed, it was not contemplated it would be the tool to address the issue of climate change," Salazar said. "It seems to me that using the Endangered Species Act as a way to get to that global warming framework is not the right way to go."
What Salazar is claiming is that if the Polar Bear were to receive full protection under the Endangered Species Act, it might force the Obama administration to actually do something to curb greenhouse gas emissions produced by the United States - the exact same flimsy excuse used by the Bush regime. This is disturbing in more ways than one. By adopting the same positions on major issues as the Bush crowd, Obama and his administration are putting the lie to his campaign rhetoric of change (wherein the only kind we see is in the faces of the people screwing the public). More importantly, such positioning not only prevents badly needed policy reversals from those of the last decade but also makes future action that much more difficult once it becomes impossible to keep doing nothing.
