Times Atlas ice error was a lesson in how scientists should mobilise | Environment | guardian.co.uk
Meanwhile, scientists from across the world continued the exchange of emails via the cryolist. Ted Scambos, a senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre, said: "I'm worried that the importance of the changes that are going on will be lost on the public, because the true value of what the ice sheet has lost compared to this 15% number sounds very small."
And he is right, because the true loss of permanent ice in Greenland from 1999-2011 is about 0.1%. This sounds miniscule. Why worry?
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Help! I am a bit lost in the ozone!
I read that natural processes produce and recycle about 800 gigatonnes of CO2 each year. Human activity contributes about 4% or about 35 gigatonnes. A gigatonne is 10**15 KG?
7 billion people on earth. Works out to about 5x10**6 KG CO2 for each of us? (per year). That is a lot! My high estimate (for just me) is 100 KG per day or 4x10**4 KG per year. Are they suggesting that I am producing 100 times as much CO2? My real estimte is I product less that half that at around 30-50 KG CO2. Just breathing I produce about 1 KG CO2 per day.
A gigatonne is 10**12 KG. One thousand times smaller that you think!
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