Atmospheric CO2 Levels Soon to Pass 400 ppm

I have my clock radio set to KPBS, our local news station, and this story came on this morning right as I was trying to wake up. The Scripps Institute of Oceanography anticipates that the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere will begin to exceed 400 parts per million by next month.

            The polar icecap will not suddenly melt and Bangladesh will not be inundated with tidal floods on the day that the 400 ppm threshold is passed, but it does mean that the goal of keeping the global temperature from rising an average of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit will almost certainly be unmet. According to the campaign 350.org, established by author and activist Bill McKibben, scientists have estimated that 350 ppm of CO2 is the highest level of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration that will still allow the earth to avoid substantial harm from warming.

            The radio report talked to Ralph Keeling, who is carrying on the work of his father, Charles Keeling. Working through the Scripps Institute, the elder Keeling initiated the recording of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa, Hawaii in 1958. Those initially recorded levels were at 316 ppm. According to the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, which handles climate change data and information analysis for the Department of Energy, the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide in 1750, at the dawn of the industrial revolution and the mass use of fossil fuel, was 280 ppm.

            So we are passing the 400 ppm threshold; the whole world is passing the 400 ppm threshold. With our factories and automobiles we have raised the concentration of carbon dioxide by over 40 percent. It seems that this is news that should go beyond our local radio station.

            

The Keeling Curve from Scripps Institute of Oceanography