This should scare everyone who's been paying attention:

The level of the most important heat-trapping gas in the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, has passed a long-feared milestone, scientists reported Friday, reaching a concentration not seen on the earth for millions of years. Scientific instruments showed that the gas had reached an average daily level above 400 parts per million -- just an odometer moment in one sense, but also a sobering reminder that decades of efforts to bring human-produced emissions under control are faltering.

The best available evidence suggests the amount of the gas in the air has not been this high for at least three million years, before humans evolved, and scientists believe the rise portends large changes in the climate and the level of the sea.

It's the first time in 3 million years we've had readings above 400ppm. But there's nothing to worry about, right?

"It symbolizes that so far we have failed miserably in tackling this problem," said Pieter P. Tans, who runs the monitoring program at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that reported the new reading.

Ralph Keeling, who runs another monitoring program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, said a continuing rise could be catastrophic. "It means we are quickly losing the possibility of keeping the climate below what people thought were possibly tolerable thresholds," he said.

Dr. Keeling's father, Charles David Keeling, began carbon dioxide measurements on Mauna Loa and at other locations in the late 1950s. The elder Dr. Keeling found a level in the air then of about 315 parts per million -- meaning that if a person had filled a million quart jars with air, about 315 quart jars of carbon dioxide would have been mixed in.

We can probably kiss our chances goodbye of turning this Titanic ship that we're on in time to save the near-certain devastation coming our way. Has our time passed?

"If you're looking to stave off climate perturbations that I don't believe our culture is ready to adapt to, then significant reductions in CO2 emissions have to occur right away," said Mark Pagani, a Yale geochemist who studies climates of the past. "I feel like the time to do something was yesterday."

Considering that when (only back in August 2006) we posted about this issue, we were at 380ppm, in 15 years we'll surpass the 450ppm level.

We really have no idea what we've done, have we?

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Tags: 350.org, 400ppm, carbon dioxide, climate change, parts per million

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Rarely do you get a Consilience story such as this -- where Earth meets Music! This is so touching:

They race towards a rubbish truck as it empties its load at a vast landfill on the edge of the city, hauling away bin liners that overflow with household waste. Their hands are black with dirt and their faces are hidden by headscarves that protect them from the high sun.

An estimated 500 gancheros (recyclers) work at Cateura on the outskirts of Asunción, where 1.5 tonnes of rubbish are deposited daily, separating plastic and aluminium that they sell on for as little as 15p a bag.

Among the mounds of refuse, however, are used oven trays and paint pots. Cast aside by the 2 million residents of the capital of Paraguay, they are nonetheless highly valued by Nicolas Gomez, who picks them out to make violins, guitars and cellos.

Read on!

Then watch this video to see how they sound:

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It's here again!

Today is Earth Day! Over one billion people in 192 countries are participating from London to Sao Paolo, Seoul to Babylon City, New Delhi to New York, Rome to Cairo; people everywhere are taking action in their communities and helping depict The Face of Climate Change.

In Copenhagen, Denmark -- as well as in six other cities on five continents -- the Danish Cultural Institute is organizing its annual CO 2 Green Drive Project in honor of Earth Day. Runners, walkers, bikers, and skaters are using their cities as canvasses to spell "CO 2" with GPS devices.

In Argentina, volunteers from the Surfrider Foundation are cleaning up the local beaches and planting evergreens and Tamarisk shrubs to help prevent wind and water erosion.

In Milan, Italy, thousands of people are gathering for the Earth Day Italia Festival to learn about environmental issues and spur action on local green initiatives.

Meanwhile in Seoul, South Korea, Ecomom Korea is organizing an "Eco-style" Earth Day Flash Mob, a variation of the popular song "Gangnam Style," as well as hosting an Earth Day Walkathon and an Earth Day exhibition, which will showcase The Face of Climate Change photo display.

In Santa Barbara, California, thousands of people attended the local Earth Day Festival, which included live music, speakers, a Green Car Show, and special awards given to Van Jones and Bill Nye.

All in all, it's going to be an amazing day all around the globe!

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Tags: Climate Change, Earth Day, Global Warming

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