New video of Dr. Marek Stibal talking about his work, and taking samples on the ice sheet on June 25.
This is an important new video by Sara Penrhyn Jones, about a little known emerging area of glacial studies. Dr. Stibal is the one of the world’s foremost experts on the communities of living things that survive in the harsh conditions on top the world’s glaciers and ice sheets.
These microbes, algae and fungi, survive the intense solar radiation by creating protective pigments, which darken the ice sheet. The question DarkSnowProject and Dr. Stibal are trying to answer is, are human influences fertilizing these life forms, and by creating more melting, encouraging their growth?
If so, this could be another important feedback in the darkening and warming of the world’s great ice reservoirs.
I’m curious as to how the study of myriad large-scale natural processes leads to a single anthropogenic conclusion?
process of elimination
Like solving a jigsaw puzzle, the work presented in this short video provides another piece. But to answer your question directly, by measuring the ratio of carbon isotopes, scientists can determine what fraction of atmospheric CO2 was created naturally vs. what fraction came from the burning of fossil fuels.
Here are two supporting pages of many (the second page is from 2004):
http://www.skepticalscience.com/co2-increase-is-natural-not-human-caused.htm
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/how-do-we-know-that-recent-cosub2sub-increases-are-due-to-human-activities-updated/
@kingdube
Maybe you should read some relevant scientific papers or syntheses thereof. The latest IPCC report, for instance, would be a good place to start. Have you read it?
And besides, Murry Salby’s mother wears army boots!
Important work is being done..I am grateful I am fining out about it.
Dang, when I saw the word Curiosity, I was expecting a post on the Mars rover.