CO2
Co2 Trend
Current trend still not looking good. And a year later, still not good…
My original writing was on May 14 00:59:05 EDT 2013 after the news popped up.
Using the most recent images from:
(whole record) https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2_data_mlo.png
(five year) https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/webdata/ccgg/trends/co2_trend_mlo.png looks like:
Then looking back at individual days from:
MLO 2013 5 17 0 0 0 399.89 0.22 16 19.536 -155.576 3437.0 3397.0 40.0 MLO 2013 5 18 0 0 0 399.77 0.23 6 19.536 -155.576 3437.0 3397.0 40.0 MLO 2013 5 19 0 0 0 400.06 0.17 16 19.536 -155.576 3437.0 3397.0 40.0 MLO 2013 5 20 0 0 0 400.11 0.15 14 19.536 -155.576 3437.0 3397.0 40.0 MLO 2013 5 21 0 0 0 399.74 0.21 14 19.536 -155.576 3437.0 3397.0 40.0 MLO 2013 5 22 0 0 0 399.97 0.11 15 19.536 -155.576 3437.0 3397.0 40.0
Happy CO2 400ppm Day!
Yes, the news is already out and that it happened a few days ago, but it is worth a comment and page here on this small website in the middle of nowhere.
That each person alive today should work towards making sure that we see 400ppm on the way back down and the sooner the better.
The oceans are already giving us a very significant sign that they’ve soaked up quite a bit of CO2 and now they’ve acidified enough that the corals and shellfish, snails, etc. are going to have a harder and harder time just keeping their skeletons and homes on their backs.
All of those coral reefs protect the coastlines. Which are going to be challenged enough by sea level increases.
So, yes, this isn’t a pretty picture. We as a entire species must make changes to bring the CO2 levels back down. ASAP.
People who deny this is a problem, who complain about the costs, get out of the way, we need to get trees planted and growing, we need to stop deforestation and we need to get more fuel efficient transportation. Planting trees is a very cost effective way to help, but that only goes so far. We need to keep pushing beyond that.
Burning more coal, oil and natural gas is not an answer it is a problem. Period.
Or simply, be less of a CO2 generating person. recycle, save gas, buy a better car, downsize your house heating or AC bills, etc. There are so many ways to make things better. Do one, once in a while and work with others to reforest areas that are degraded. Buy electricity generated with solar or wind power. Walk, garden or do something low impact once in a while. Conserve hot water, help clean up ground water pollution. Use one less ounce of pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or fertilizers. Every little bit helps.
I hope to see the other side of 400ppm in my lifetime. Let’s hope it happens soon. For all of our dreams will fade if we are gone too. The world will recover without us. I have no doubt of that. I much prefer that there are some people here though, as at least then we’d show that we deserve the claims of intelligence, humanity, humility and love (not just of ourselves, but of the rest of the species on this planet too).
We have no hope of getting to the distant stars if we can’t figure out how to manage a closed system ecology as large as a planet which is already fairly self-regulating. Take that and downsize it and it gets even more of a challenge. Are we, as a species, up for that? We better be. The clock is ticking…
So tell me, are you a part of the problem or a part of the solution? Get with it.