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November 19, 2009 - One of the biggest issues in the ongoing debate about C02 and global warming is measurement. How quickly are we adding C02 to our atmosphere? It's not a simple matter of adding up the total output of C02 each year. The reason is that land and seas absorb much of the C02 that is emitted. Increased absorption of C02 is believed to be the reason that oceans have become more acidic. It may also be the reason that the effects of a thickening C02 blanket have been mitigated thus far. But now, after absorbing much more C02 than in the past, the oceans' ability to absorb C02 seems to be diminishing. This means that the amount of C02 remaining in the atmosphere may increase more quickly than it would otherwise. Measuring this change in absorption is difficult but necessary to accurately forecast future C02 levels. Here's the full story from David Biello at Scientific American.