Carbon Dioxide Levels Grew at Record Pace in 2016

Carbon Dioxide Levels Grew at Record Pace in 2016

"The amount of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere grew at record rate in 2016 to a level not seen for millions of years, potentially fuelling a 20-metre rise in sea levels and adding 3 degrees to temperatures, the United Nations said on Monday."

"Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main man-made greehouse gas, hit 403.3 parts per million (ppm), up from 400.0 in 2015, the U.N. World Meteorological Organization said in its annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. That growth rate was 50 percent faster than the average over the past decade, driving CO2 levels 45 percent above pre-industrial levels and further outside the range of 180-280 ppm seen in recent cycles of ice ages and warmer periods."

October 31, 2017 – Next Sixteen Weeks

As we head into November, the next sixteen weeks are generally coldest part of the year. Evenings will come much earlier as the time changes, average high temperatures will drop into the 50s then the 40s. In six weeks, the evenings will start getting slightly longer, in eight weeks at the start of winter the days will slowly but surely start to get longer. The coldest time of the year is eleven weeks out, with days getting noticeablyΒ longer and warmer come six weekends out. Eventually, spring will be back once again.

Week Date Dawn Sun-
rise
Sun-
set
Dusk Day Avg High Avg Low Record Hi Record Low
0 Oct 31 7:00 am 7:29 am 5:48 pm 6:17 pm 10:19 54 35 73 (1946) 18 (1988)
1 Nov 7 6:08 am 6:38 am 4:40 pm 5:09 pm 10:02 51 34 75 (1938) 18 (1962)
2 Nov 14 6:16 am 6:46 am 4:33 pm 5:03 pm 9:46 49 32 70 (1973) 12 (1996)
3 Nov 21 6:24 am 6:55 am 4:27 pm 4:58 pm 9:32 46 30 70 (1931) 7 (1879)
4 Nov 28 6:32 am 7:03 am 4:23 pm 4:55 pm 9:20 43 28 68 (1990) 6 (1951)
5 Dec 5 6:39 am 7:10 am 4:22 pm 4:53 pm 9:11 40 25 65 (2001) 2 (1989)
6 Dec 12 6:45 am 7:16 am 4:22 pm 4:54 pm 9:05 37 23 62 (1979) -12 (1988)
7 Dec 19 6:49 am 7:21 am 4:24 pm 4:56 pm 9:02 35 20 54 (1895) -13 (1973)
8 Dec 26 6:52 am 7:24 am 4:28 pm 5:00 pm 9:04 33 18 59 (1895) -17 (1914)
9 Jan 2 6:53 am 7:25 am 4:34 pm 5:06 pm 9:08 31 16 61 (1890) -20 (1970)
10 Jan 9 6:53 am 7:24 am 4:41 pm 5:12 pm 9:16 30 15 62 (2008) -20 (1968)
11 Jan 16 6:50 am 7:21 am 4:49 pm 5:20 pm 9:27 30 14 62 (1995) -16 (1971)
12 Jan 23 6:46 am 7:16 am 4:58 pm 5:28 pm 9:41 31 14 64 (1906) -20 (1970)
13 Jan 30 6:40 am 7:10 am 5:07 pm 5:36 pm 9:56 31 15 56 (2013) -12 (1965)
14 Feb 6 6:33 am 7:02 am 5:16 pm 5:45 pm 10:13 33 16 55 (1991) -20 (1948)
15 Feb 13 6:24 am 6:53 am 5:25 pm 5:54 pm 10:31 34 17 58 (1900) -18 (1875)
16 Feb 20 6:15 am 6:43 am 5:34 pm 6:03 pm 10:50 36 18 66 (1930) -16 (1966)

Train crosses Letchworth Gorge

Cattails along the pond

Methane to Its Madness

Methane to Its Madness

"You don’t often find oil and gas companies lining up to take business advice from a bunch of tree huggersβ€”especially when it comes to climate change. But that’s exactly what happened when the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) decided to tackle the problem of leaking methane, a rarely mentioned but extremely potent greenhouse pollutant. Methane, the main constituent of natural gas, is a lot cleaner than coal when used to make electricity, but when it gets into the atmosphere unburned it behaves like an invisible blanket. At least 10 million tons of methane escapes from the nation’s sprawling oil and gas system every year, resulting in about a good portion of the warming the planet is currently seeing."

October 31, 2017 8 AM Update

On this Halloween morning the sun has finally come up. 45 degrees and sunny, although the bus is a bit chilly as some of the windows are open and the heat is off. I’m sure with the sun it will be plenty warm in my office though. Maybe 52 degrees later.

The sun will set at 5:48 pm with dusk around 6:17 pm, which is one minute and 19 seconds earlier than yesterday. Next week it will be an hour earlier. At sunset, look for partly clear conditions and 50 degrees. There will be a west breeze at 9 mph. Today will have 10 hours and 19 minutes of daytime, a decrease of 2 minutes and 34 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low of 33 degrees at 6am. Two degrees below normal. But not quite freezing. West wind 3 to 8 mph. In 2016, we had mostly clear skies with more clouds in the early hours of the next day. It got down to 25 degrees. The record low of 22 occurred back in 1964. That was a pretty cold autumn but also exceptionally dry.

Definitely a pretty nice day to conclude October. It was such a busy crazy month that went by so fast. I’m glad I’m getting a November inspection sticker this year so I don’t have to deal with the state inspection until next November. Synthetic oil means I won’t need an oil change until May or June based on the mileage I normally drive.

Since they repaved the South Mall Arterial it has gotten a fair bit smoother but it is still fairly rough in spots. I guess it’s one step forward. There is a lot of traffic on it today but it’s moving well. It’s nice catching the express in. Last week it either was rainy or too difficult to get moving fast enough in the morning with the dark skies to get an early enough start to catch the express bus. Once the time changes next week, I probably will catch more of the express buses downtown.

As previously noted, next Tuesday is Election Day 2017 when the sun will be setting at 4:40 pm with dusk at 5:09 pm (Standard Time). Have you made your plans to get out and vote? I voted in the proxy ballot for some of my investment funds but I also need to vote on the machine for the local political races. I did vote in favor of the divestment proposal, because while it might add some costs, I think in the long run it’s better not to do business with dictators. I think this is the first time I’ve ever voted on a machine in Delmar in a local election. On that day in 2016, we had mostly sunny skies and temperatures between 53 and 28 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 51 degrees. We hit a record high of 75 back in 1938.