More Top Gear debunking yey

[dreamer_easy]

What I should be doing: cleaning up for the annual real estate inspection tomorrow.

What I am doing: pondering Jeremy Clarkson's repeated remark that human activities only contribute 3% of atmospheric CO2.

Now, I don't know if Jezza's figure is correct in the first instance, but according to Wikipedia, 95% of the stuff comes from natural processes, so it's probably pretty close. However, as Wikipedia explains:

"Although natural sources represent most CO2 emissions, they do not contribute to the recent observed increase in concentrations because natural sources are balanced by natural sinks that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The increase in carbon dioxide concentration arises because the increase from human activity is not completely balanced by a corresponding sink."

This would explain the huge increase in CO2 levels since the beginning of the industrial age; we may only be producing a little each year, but it's got nowhere to go. Whack the figures into a compound interest calculator and you'll get some idea of the problem. (Plus, at the same time, we're stripping the forests that have been soaking up the naturally produced CO2 for millions of years.) So, even if Jeremy's right about the figure, he's wrong about what it means.

Comments

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

ZOMG ICON LOVE

and then...the doorbell rang!

[gallowglass.livejournal.com]

Yeah but it's Clarkson. No one really takes him seriously whatever he says, we're just waiting for him to rubbish some hugely expensive mega car that no one in the audience will ever be able to afford to buy or race a ferry to Oslo or say something completely outrageous even though he knows he'll get in trouble for it again but people will forgive him because he's Jeremy Clarkson and he's excessively bigger than life.

It's why I sometimes read his newspaper column, not because I often find myself in agreement with him but because a lot of the time I get a good laugh out of it, sometimes seasoned with a shiver of pure fear.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

BWA

My only worry is that some of his audience do miss the signals and take him seriously!