As a natural carbon sink becomes full to the brim - more CO2 will end up in the atmos

probe

The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is reaching saturation point in terms of its ability to absorb global CO2 discharges – it currently accounts for 15% of the global carbon sink, along with the jungles, forests, other oceans and seas, and of course the Irish bogs.

Since the beginning of the “industrial revolution” they estimate that the world’s oceans have absorbed about 25% of the 500 GT of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere to date.

Meanwhile the ESB and BGE plan to spend €zillions on new gas fired power stations. Despite the fact that Ireland’s heavily constrained and capped wind energy industry (handcuffed mainly by the ESB and their scared of competition unions, some of whose power station workers earn over €100,000 pa) reached a record output of 708 MW on 18 May. Multiply that tiny wind generation capacity by a factor of 10 and one could meet all of Ireland’s electricity needs from wind alone, using international interconnection as a “battery”. (708 MW * 10 is nearly twice the national demand, providing export potential).

While one isn’t suggesting that Ireland should be totally wind dependant, there are an abundance of green energy sources within the national territory boundaries. Untapped and ignored.

more:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,483540,00.html

.probe

Grudaire

probe wrote:

The Southern Ocean around Antarctica is reaching saturation point in terms of its ability to absorb global CO2 discharges – it currently accounts for 15% of the global carbon sink, along with the jungles, forests, other oceans and seas, and of course the Irish bogs.

Since the beginning of the “industrial revolution” they estimate that the world’s oceans have absorbed about 25% of the 500 GT of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere to date.

I just wonder why the hell we are relying on these carbon sinks rather then proactively reducing CO2 etc output. These carbon sinks are the excuse that we use for not reducing output levels....

csm

it's true, reducing emissions is the way forward. having said that, the oceans are a natural sink and if we could get our fossil fuel emissions down to about 2 Gt (gigatonne) C per year then the atmospheric concentration would remain stable because of it. happy days.

and it's not quite full to the brim yet! in fact, the oceans will always be a sink of CO2.

bonkey

You both seem to have missed that the OP was a rant against ESB rather than really being about carbon sinks and the rest.

csm

yeah you're right actually. weird thread title