How can it be that IPCC reported levels of Co2 are lower than recorded levels.?

Question

Maybe somebody is using inaccurate methods of checking and recording them

http://www.bruderheim-rea.ca/warming9.htm

Answer 1

If you measured carbon monoxide levels at the tailpipe of your car, it wouldn't tell you much about carbon monoxide in the atmosphere as a whole.

The same is true of carbon dioxide, too. If you measure carbon dioxide next to a coal-fired powerplant, it's gonna be high. Or next to a coal-fired factory.

In the 19th and early 20th century, scientists weren't really aware of the difference it made to be near an industrial center. They didn't know how far away you'd have to be to get a "background" level of CO2. In those days, they just measured where they lived, which was mostly Europe, which was mostly industrialized and coal-powered.

So those high readings weren't false. But from a global perspective, they weren't very useful, either.

Nowadays, we take CO2 readings at points that are as far away from industry as we can get, to make sure we get a good "background" level. That means the top of a mountain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, or at the South Pole. Combine those with ice-core readings from Antarctica, and you get a good, consistent background level of CO2 that goes back half a million years.

Here's a graph of just the last 10,000 years:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3006/2615...