Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels will produce a 3 percent reduction in the density of Earth's outermost atmosphere by 2017, according to a team of scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Pennsylvania State University (PSU).

The research appears in the latest issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, and will be presented today at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco, Calif.

"We're seeing climate change manifest itself in the upper as well as lower atmosphere," said NCAR scientist Stan Solomon, a co-author of the study. "This shows the far-ranging impacts of greenhouse gas emissions."

The full story:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061211221048.htm

It bugged me at the beginning of "Inconvenient Truth," when explaining greenhouse warming, Al said pollution "thickens" the atmosphere trapping more heat. This was an especially poor choice of word after just likening the "thickness" of our atmosphere to a coat of varnish on a globe.

Now we see CO2 actually "thins" the atmosphere!

I'm just being silly here, picking on Al; but the film makes a point about being scrupulously accurate with the science and facts.

Still for the general audience, the point is made well enough.

~samwik

Poor choice of words.