I inhale great draughts of space,
The east and west are mine, and the north and the south are mine
I am larger, better than I thought,
I did not know I held so much goodness - all seems beautiful to me.
- Song of the Open Road, Walt Whitman
Evolution of the Atmosphere: Composition, Structure and Energy
Keeling Curve: Atmospheric CO2 concentrations as measured at Mauna Loa Observatory.
The Keeling Curve is a graph showing the variation in concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide since 1958. Keeling's measurements showed the first significant evidence of rapidly increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. Many scientists credit Keeling's graph with first bringing the world's attention to the effects that human activity were having on the Earth's atmosphere and climate.
Charles David Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography was the first person to make frequent regular measurements of the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration, taking readings at the South Pole and atop Mauna Loa in Hawaii from 1958 onwards.
These measurements show a steady increase in mean atmospheric CO2 concentration from about 315 parts per million by volume (ppmv) in 1958 to over 380 ppmv by the year 2006 [1]. This increase in atmospheric CO2 is considered to be largely due to the combustion of fossil fuels, and has been accelerating in recent years. This is supported by measurements of carbon dioxide concentration in ancient air bubbles trapped in polar ice cores, which show that mean atmospheric CO2 concentration was between 275 and 280 ppmv for several thousand years but started rising sharply at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, this has significant implications for global warming.
Though Mauna Loa is an active volcano, Keeling and collaborators made measurements on the incoming ocean breeze and above the thermal inversion layer to prevent local contamination. In addition, measurements at many other isolated sites have confirmed the long-term trend,
I've been pretty neutral on this. Right now in Upstate NY we just got buried in the first snowstorm of the season and it hasn't gotten to 20 deg.F all week.
ReplyDeleteHard to picture global warming from looking over the snowbanks! LOL!
Well, it's raining cats and dogs here in Orgone but the good news is that it is 57 degrees. It all depends on which way the wind blows around here.
ReplyDeleteRight now it's the Pineapple Express coming in from Hawaii, but tomorrow it could be the Arctic Choo Choo from the gulf of Alaska.
I don't buy the whole Al Gore concept either. The main worry here is the deforestation of the planet and the accelerated extinction of animal species, including us...G:
I don't buy the whole Al Gore concept either. The main worry here is the deforestation of the planet and the accelerated extinction of animal species, including us...G:
ReplyDeleteYup. I'll second that G:. I kinda like breathing oxygen, seein's that it keeps one livin'!
You might want to read the scientific paper presented here (from the November 2007 Journal of Geophysical Research) before making up your mind on the debunkers:
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/2wz6m5
or this one that references a study from December 2007 issue of the International Journal of Climatology of the Royal Meteorological Society:
http://tinyurl.com/2tkhpg