[Coral-List] Reporting Co2 to the public

[Douglas Fenner]

      As far as I know, reporting CO2 to the public would require stating
what the concentration of CO2 is in the atmosphere (that's what the Keeling
Curve shows).  It is probably normally expressed in something like parts
per million, which the public may not understand, so expressing it as a
percent as well could serve to increase public understanding of that aspect.
      Whether CO2 should be reported as a percentage of atmospheric gases
depends on the purpose.  If the purpose is to show that CO2 does not drive
temperature changes, then stressing how small the concentration of CO2 is
in the atmosphere could be used to deceive readers into thinking that CO2
is not important in climate change (and thus decrease public
understanding).  Showing how little nerve gas concentration would be needed
in the atmosphere to kill the entire human population could illustrate how
even a gas in much less concentration than CO2 could have strong effects.
The concentration of argon or even nitrogen could show that very high
concentrations of inert gases aren't necessarily toxic.  What should be
included all depends on the purpose.
    Showing a figure of how much additional heat energy (such as watts or
joules) is retained in the earth due to the increases in CO2 might
illustrate the connection between CO2 concentrations and changes in mean
global temperature.  If the purpose is to protect the fossil fuel industry,
then maybe that shouldn't be included.

Cheers,  Doug

On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 4:22 AM, Eugene Shinn <eshinn at marine.usf.edu> wrote:

> Good ideas to report Co2 to the public. I suggest that the graphs all
> of you have suggested also include graphs of global temperature
> change over the same period of time. Should Co2 also be reported as a
> percentage of atmospheric gases?  The Terry Hughes video is excellent
> and truthful. Gene
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