17. Pepin County Board Votes to Protect Shore Strip Along Wisconsin Side of Lake Pepin from Frac Sand Mining
A 10-mile ribbon of popular bluff land on the Wisconsin side of Lake Pepin will be off limits to frac sand development under an unprecedented ordinance approved Wednesday night by the Pepin County Board.
“This is fabulous because it really protects all of the area of Lake Pepin in Pepin County. It’s a huge victory for us,” said Mary Logue, who was among the residents who pushed for the frac-free zone. “We’re really hoping it will be a template for other cities, villages and counties along the Mississippi that are fighting this.”
No Minnesota or Wisconsin county has flatly banned frac sand companies from operating in a defined territory. The Pepin County ordinance, which passed on a 9-3 vote, drew criticism from mining proponents and some County Board members, but a united core of residents around the villages of Pepin and Stockholm pushed for the frac-free zone on the premise that industrial sand projects would destroy the area’s natural endowments, wreck property values and impair the bedrock tourism trade.
“You would destroy fishing, boating, overnight camping and everything that goes with it,” said Pepin County Board Supervisor Bill Mavity, a lawyer and former Minneapolis police officer.
But Mark Krumenacher, who works for a company that sells services to a variety of mining industries, said other Lake Pepin communities in neighboring Pierce County have prospered from sand mining. The village of Maiden Rock, for instance, has long had an underground industrial sand mine.
“Tourism and quality of life clearly has not diminished in those communities, or in Stockholm and Pepin, during the period of industrial sand mining,” Krumenacher wrote this week to the County Board.
The ordinance bucks an industry that has rolled into a powerful position in Wisconsin over the past four years. The state holds vast deposits of uniquely formed silica sand needed by oil and gas drillers in other states as part of a national boom in hydraulic fracturing to recover crude and natural gas
The ordinance bucks an industry that has rolled into a powerful position in Wisconsin and Minnesota over the past four years. The two states hold vast deposits of uniquely formed silica sand needed by oil and gas drillers in other states as part of a national boom in hydraulic fracturing to recover crude and natural gas.
Mavity worked with Lake Pepin Partners in Preservation, a civic group, to rally local support for the ordinance, which was proposed after a frac sand group attempted unsuccessfully to build a processing plant and barge-loading terminal on a corner of the lake.
He said the zoning measure prohibits any kind of frac sand operation in a swath from the shoreline to the top of the area’s steep sandstone outcroppings. The ordinance is supported by the Wisconsin Mississippi Parkway Commission as a way to protect that portion of the Great River Road, which is a National Scenic Byway.
The two villages and two townships affected by the ordinance had already voted in support of it.
While Minnesota has fewer than 10 operating frac sand mines, additional mines and processing sites are being permitted in the wake of industry victories at the state Legislature this year. In Wisconsin, frac sand mining and processing has exploded from a handful of facilities three years ago to a nation-leading industry of 105 mines and 65 processing sites.
Tony Kennedy • 612-673-4213
16. International Energy Agency Claims World Average Temperature to Rise 5.3 Degrees Celsius
A new study from the International Energy Agency says emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels rose to record levels last year. Global emissions increased by 1.4 percent, putting the world on pace for a temperature hike of up to 5.3 degrees Celsius, or 9 degrees Fahrenheit, which is more than double the 2-degree-Celsius target set by world leaders. The agency’s chief economist called that scenario a “disaster for all countries.”
“Global energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 are projected to be nearly 4 billion tons higher than a level consistent with attaining the 2 degree target, highlighting the scale of the challenge still to be tackled just in this decade,” the agency said.
The IEA urged governments to quickly adopt four policies that would ensure climate goals could be reached without harming economic growth. They are: improving energy efficiency in buildings, industry and transport; limiting the construction and use of inefficient power plants; halving methane emissions; and partially phasing out fossil fuel subsidies.
These would reduce global energy-related emissions by 8 percent or 3.1 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2020, the IEA said.
“Delaying stronger climate action to 2020 would come at a cost: $1.5 trillion in low-carbon investments are avoided before 2020, but $5 trillion in additional investments would be required thereafter to get back on track,” the IEA said.
International negotiators are meeting in Bonn, Germany, until Friday for U.N. talks aimed at getting a new global climate treaty, which would cut emissions, signed by 2015.
However, the talks got off to a slow start last week due to attempts by three nations to amend one of the meeting’s many agendas to discuss how future decisions should be made.
Scientists say global average temperature rise needs to be limited to below 2 degrees Celsius this century to prevent devastating climate effects like crop failure and melting glaciers.
That would only be possible if emission levels are kept to around 44 billion tons of CO2 equivalent by 2020.
15. Wisconsin’s Proposed State Budget Needs Major Overhaul
The Wisconsin State Journal asked its readers for “letters to the editor” on what needed to be fixed, if anything, in Wisconsin’s state budget bill, which will be taken up by the Wisconsin Legislature starting Tuesday, June 18 (tomorrow). Follow was the letter I submitted:
State money for vouchers and tax exemptions for families who already can afford to send their kids to private schools?
A large tax cut which sends much more money back to people in the state’s higher income brackets than to those unfortunate enough to be in the lower income bracket?
No health care that the poor can afford?
Wisconsin at the bottom of the list for renewable energy development, again (under the Gov. Scott Walker administration), yet nothing in the state budget to raise it up the list?
No mention of the words “global warming”, “climate change”, or “reduce greenhouse gases” in the budget bill, despite the reality of human-caused climate change being well evident now to nearly everyone in Wisconsin, and despite the preponderance of scientific studies backing that up?
Yes, I would say Wisconsin’s state budget needs fixing – A WHOLE LOT OF FIXING!
14. Dane County Passes Resolution Divesting Investments in Fossil Industry – Calls on the University of Wisconsin, the State of Wisconsin, and other local governments in Wisconsin to Follow Suit
On Thursday, June 6th, The Dane County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution calling for divestment from fossil fuels. The resolution, introduced by Progressive Dane Supervisor Kyle Richmond, calls on Dane County, The University of Wisconsin, the State of Wisconsin, and other local governments to divest their holdings from fossil fuel companies.
The resolution passed with near unanimous support of the Board of Supervisors.The resolution, which correctly states what 97% of the scientific community asserts: “[that] the climate crisis (global warming) is a serious threat to current and future generations in Dane County and around the world”.
DANE COUNTY SUPPORTS DIVESTMENT FROM FOSSIL FUELS
The climate crisis is a serious threat to current and future generations in Dane County and around the world.
In 2007, the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that global warming was real, primarily caused by human activities, posed significant risks and is already causing costly disruption of human and natural systems throughout the world including the melting of Arctic ice, the ocean’s rise in acidity, flooding and drought.
Climate experts, scientific organizations representing every major discipline, and dozens of national academies of science overwhelmingly agree with IPCC findings.
In 2009, 167 countries endorsed the non-binding Copenhagen Accord which, as drafted by the United States, China, India and Brazil, states that any warming above a 2°C (3.6°F) rise would be unsafe, and that humans can only emit about 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to maintain this limit. If all the known reserves of coal, oil, and gas in 2010 were burned, they would emit 2,795 gigatons of CO2, or roughly five times the amount we can safely release to maintain a 2°C limit of planetary warming.
For the purposes of this resolution, a “fossil fuel company” shall be defined as any of the 200 publicly traded companies with the largest coal, oil, and gas reserves as measured by the gigatons of carbon dioxide that would be emitted if those reserves were extracted and burned, as listed by the Carbon Tracker Initiative in its “Unburnable Carbon” report.
The Carbon Tracker Initiative report found that fossil fuel companies possess proven fossil fuel reserves that would release approximately 2,795 gigatons of CO2 if they are burned, which is five times the amount that can be released without exceeding 2°C of warming, a limit that nearly every country on Earth, including the United States, has agreed to meet.
The county has made a commitment to improve the sustainability of its operations, management, and policymaking, and is working to adopt policies and take actions to plan for and address climate change mitigation and adaptation as a critical element of its sustainability efforts.
Dane County was a founding county of NACo’s Cool Counties Climate Stabilization Initiative, which pledges to reduce global warming emissions 80% below current levels by 2050 and implement plans to prepare for and build resilience to climate impacts. Dane County also adopted and approved Resolution 20, 6-20-06 urging Congress, the federal administration, and the state to take immediate action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution, and Resolution 84, 8-22-07 supporting climate pollution reduction efforts and committing to take immediate steps to help the federal, state, and local governments within the county achieve the 2050 climate stabilization goal.
Dane County has a responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of its inhabitants from the threats of climate change and is committed to ensuring a resilient and vibrant community for the future.
Dane County believes that its investments should support this responsibility and commitment.
Dane County does not directly invest in any fossil fuel companies or in commingled assets that include holdings in fossil fuel companies.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Dane County Board of Supervisors declares that it is the policy of Dane County not to invest in fossil fuel companies.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Dane County Treasurer shall not make any new investments in fossil fuel companies or in commingled assets that include holdings in fossil fuel companies.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that Dane County urges other local governments, the University of Wisconsin, the State of Wisconsin, and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board to join Dane County in these efforts and divest their own holdings from fossil fuel companies.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that Dane County will send a copy of this resolution to the Dane County Cities’ and Villages’ Association, the Dane County Towns Association, the Wisconsin Counties Association, the National Association of Counties, the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker, the Dane County legislative delegation, and the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.
Submitted by Supervisors Richmond, Krause, Stubbs, Bollig, Wegleitner, Schmidt, Corrigan, Veldran, Chenoweth, de Felice, Miles, Sargent, Downing, Erickson, Bayrd, Pertl, Salov, Hotchkiss, Zweifel, Hesselbein, Dye, Kolar, Matano, Pan and Rusk, May 23, 2013.
13. As State Officials in Wisconsin Advance Requirements for Ultrasounds for the Unborn and Vouchers for School Children, New York City Plans for Global Warming
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today (6/11/2013) presented “A Stronger, More Resilient New York,” the comprehensive and ambitious report that analyzes the city’s climate risks and outlines recommendations to protect neighborhoods and infrastructure from future climate events. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, Mayor Bloomberg launched the Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency and charged it with recommending steps the City should take to protect against the impacts of climate change. The Special Initiative produced a 430-page report, “A Stronger, More Resilient New York,” with more than 250 specific recommendations to further fortify the city against climate events. The Mayor released the report Tuesday in an extensive presentation to elected officials, business and community leaders and leading climate experts at the Duggal Greenhouse – which was damaged during Hurricane Sandy and has since reopened as one of the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s 330 businesses.
“‘A Stronger, More Resilient New York’ is the result of a massive effort by the Bloomberg Administration with the active involvement of an array of City agencies and expert advisors,” said Marc Ricks, Chief Operating Officer of the Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency. “We also benefited from a close partnership with State and Federal agencies, and from extensive input from elected officials, community groups, and over a thousand New Yorkers who participated in our public workshops. With this level of collaboration, I am confident that this report represents the very best thinking about how to make New York safer in the years to come.”
“As bad as Sandy was, future storms could be even worse. In fact, because of rising temperatures and sea levels, even a storm that’s not as large as Sandy could – down the road – be even more destructive… We have to look ahead and anticipate any and all future threats, not only from hurricanes but also from droughts, heavy downpours and heat waves – which may be longer, and more intense, in the years to come.”
New data from the report shows: Sea levels could rise at a faster rate than forecast just four years ago – potentially by more than 2.5 feet by the 2050s; By the 2050s, the city could have three times as many days at or above 90 degrees – leading to heat waves that threaten public health and the power system, among other infrastructure systems; The number of days with more than two inches of rainfall will grow from three in the last century to five in the 2050s. The Panel’s full report, complete with detailed insight of their methodology and findings, is available on http://www.nyc.gov. Proposals to protect city residents are outlined in the report “A Stronger, More Resilient New York.”
The analysis shows that the costs of storms will increase: Sandy totaled $19 billion in damage and economic loss; in 2025, that cost grows to $35 billion and by 2055, $90 billion.
Meanwhile, Wisconsin state governmental officials finalized a state school voucher plan that allows state money to be used for private school K-12 enrollment in Wisconsin, at the expense of public school funding. Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker said he’d sign the school voucher bill after it passed both Republican dominated houses of the state legislature, as well as a bill that passed the State Senate today which requires pregnant mothers to have an ultrasound performed and shown to them before they may legally having an abortion. The same Wisconsin legislators and the governor claim to be doing what’s best for Wisconsin’s children, over the objection of multitudes of mothers, school teachers and many other citizens of the state. And yet at the same time, Wisconsin’s state officials – predominantly Republicans – continue to ignore the growing scientific evidence of global warming, which now undeniably threatens the world of every child and newborn, regardless of which state they live in, to grow up in a world much less hospitable than the one at present.
While global warming grows from bad to worse, the State of Wisconsin, which had once prided itself as an environmental leader (which it was), continues to do nothing substantive to reduce its contributions to global warming or to advance protection measures aimed at helping Wisconsin’s future citizens adapt to the changing climate.
12. Fossil Fuel Industry Should be Charged Crime for Lying to the Public and Government About Growing Threat to Humankind of Global Warming
Revenues from coal, oil (oil from tar sands – above photo, or from wells) and natural gas sales have made millionaires a dime a dozen. But they know full well that they are selling a product to the public that is already ravaging our planet. Below is evidence that not only are they pulling the wool over the public’s eyes, they have also been trying to do the same to our state legislators.
COAL, OIL AND NATURAL GAS CEO’S OUGHT BE CHARGED WITH CRIMES
This is criminal, just like when the tobacco industry argued cigarettes weren’t harmful to anyone’s health even though they had studies that showed otherwise. The only difference this time is that the adverse effects from burning the fuels occur to essentially every living thing on the planet, plus to all those yet to be born. For example, the accumulations of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the most abundant of the trace greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (aside from water vapor) has already reached a concentration level of 400 part per million (ppm) CO2 in the atmosphere. CO2 had not reached that high of level level iyn over three million years prior to today, a time when the ocean level was 60-80 feet higher on the shore than it is today a time that humans had not yet existed on Earth. The fossil industry are also aware that burning their product results in an increasing number of additional trace greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to a warmer, more volatile, planet.
So far the warming and catastrophic effects has not hit everyone equally on the planet. Living on the earth will, without a doubt, become a more dangerous and inhospitable place to live in the future.The faster our collective reduction in fossil and other fuel burning is, and the less the threat of rapid global warming will be.
By the way, just because we have had a spring so far that has been cooler than last year’s record warm sring in Wisconsin, it doesn’t mean it has also been cool in other spots around the planet. While Mother Nature was still giving the United States the cold shoulder during March, many other areas across the world experienced higher-than-average monthly temperatures according to the latest statistics from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center. The average global temperature for March 2013 tied with 2006 as the 10th warmest March since record keeping began in 1880. It also marked the 37th consecutive March and 337th consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20th century average. The last below-average March temperature was March 1976, and the last below-average temperature for any month was February 1985.
11. Fracking Mining Threatens Western Wisconsin, our Country and World
Flattening The Hilltoppers? Frac Sand Mine is Proposed Near Wisconsin School. More than 100 frac sand mines and processing facilities, like this one outside of Bloomer, Wis., have cropped up across the state over the last few years.
Everyone who used natural gas (methane) to warm their home or place of business last year in the county should also read this excellent series on the wide-reaching impacts of the “fracking” (fracturing) industry in Wisconsin. The facts are clear: while the increasingly plentiful supplies natural gas and oil from newly fractured drilling well sites in North Dakota have been a boon of sorts especially to the nearby communities, the large quantities of sand excavated in Wisconsin and shipped to North Dakota for fracturing the drilling wells (sand is injected into the wells with mining fluids, adding pressure, resulting in fracturing the surrounding shale rock, which then frees up the methane from the surrounding shale) is creating havoc in many Western Wisconsin communities. The money that is ultimately made from selling the natural gas and oil produced by the North Dakota wells and sold throughout the U.S. often results in a windfall to the oil and natural gas industry and to the land owners. However, the operations from this industry also often result in the creation of many different kinds of effects, mainly negative, both to Western Wisconsin communities and the country and world as a whole.
The effects on the local communities and the environment in general come in the form of noise and air pollution at the drilling and sand mining sites, the permanent scarring and loss of habitat on the land, bluff, or mountain tops altered by the mining of the sand; and the air pollution emissions and noise created along the trucking routes, as well as the ground and surface water pollution at the drilling well sites, the sand mining sites, the sand processing sites, and the used frac sand disposal sites.
Of course there are also much broader negative effects of the continued growth of the fracing industry in the U.S. and elsewhere. The addition fuel mined and ultimately burned for heat or energy production is adding millions more tons of greenhouse gases to our atmosphere and oceans. Every cubit foot of natural gas that is burned releases .12 cubic tons carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, where it will remain upwards of one hundred years. This is adding to the mounting billions of tons more greenhouse (heat trapping) gases in that are present in our atmosphere, above and beyond the amounts that were present in the atmosphere when humans first began burning huge quantities of fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) in a big way during the Industrial Revolution. The level of greenhouse gas concentrations in our atmosphere have presently reached historically high levels, which reputable global warming scientists the world over say poses a very real and dangerous threat to all of humanity.
For example, the most voluminous of the greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide – reached the milestone of 400 parts per million twice in the past three weeks. That level is already too high, say the overwhelming majority of the world’s scientists, and the result has been grave consequences, including injury or death to millions of people, especially families and individuals living within the world’s coastal cities where strong hurricanes come ashore. They have been impacted as the result of increased storm activities associated with warming and rising seas (ocean levels are rising from the expanding warmer water in the ocean and from new sources of ocean water, such as the water originating on lands from previously year-round-frozen glaciers – for example ice packs in Greenland, high mountain tops, and melt waters from Antarctica. Moreover, the oceans are also 30% more acidic than pre-Industrial Revolution times, which has adversely impacted some ocean species with significant fishing losses, losses of marine life and coral reefing destruction. Scientists predict that, by the end of this century, this will have a devastating impact on our plant, with many more deadly heat waves, higher humidity, massive coastal as well as inland flooding, more powerful storms, everywhere, more rain in the off season but longer and more widespread drought during the growing season, and more widespread insect infestations, due to fewer cold snaps that formerly limited the poleward movement of such species.
These broader effects are the likely impacts of higher than natural emissions of greenhouse gases from human-caused activities, which are proven to be resulting from historically high burning of fossil fuels (most notably coal, oil and natural gas). In the frac sand mining processes, greenhouse gases are emitted in using energy to excavate and deliver large volumes of sand from Western Wisconsin to the North Dakota drilling well sites, delivering the gas and ultimately resulting from emissions from burning the final product in the form of carbon dioxide, the most abundant og the greenhouse gases in the earth’s atmosphere. The concentration level in the atmosphere hit 400 parts per million twice in the last three weeks and is the highest concentration level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in over 2,5 million years, which occurred when the oceans were 60-80 feet higher than they are now.
10. U. S. Department of Agriculture Funded Research on Global Warming
Wisconsin State Journal Editorial
Published May 5, 2013
“Research to the rescue”
Federal investment in university research can help agriculture face the challenge of global warming.
On his trip to Wisconsin last week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a prime example of the kind of smart investment the federal government should make to confront climate change and support the economy.
UW-Madison and six other universities are to share a $9.9 million grant for a five-year research project aimed at reducing the dairy industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. The project is especially important to Wisconsin, where the dairy industry contributes more than $26 billion a year to the state’s economy. Climate change is a threat to the industry and, consequently, a threat to Wisconsin’s economy.
In the long term, climate change puts Wisconsin at risk of becoming less desirable as a location for dairying. But of more immediate concern is the dairy industry’s contribution to climate change.
The industry produces 2 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, which tend to keep more heat in the atmosphere. Customers, including Wal-Mart, are pressuring the industry to cut emissions. Furthermore, the prospect of federal regulation looms.
In response, the industry has pledged to cut emissions by 25 percent in the next seven years.
Just as climate change poses a threat, the response poses an opportunity. By finding ways to cut emissions, the industry can improve efficiency, which would boost profits.
University research on new technologies and strategies can play a central role in helping the industry meet its challenges and take advantage of its opportunities, as a look through history demonstrates.
Wisconsin was a wheat-growing state in the 1800s. But when wheat farming declined, University of Wisconsin research helped the state become “America’s Dairyland.” During the Dust Bowl on the Great Plains in the 1930s, university research found farming methods that cut down on wind erosion. After the Dust Bowl, university research helped produce higher-yielding hybrid crops.
No doubt, some wag will ridicule the USDA grant as a waste of taxpayer money on a study of manure, which indeed will be a part of the research. But while these are times to control government spending, these are also times to invest in the country’s future.
Investing in research to combat climate change and improve the dairy industry is the right priority.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published in Wisconsin State Journal on May 19, 2013
Question Asked: Is research key to helping Wisconsin farmers deal with climate change?
“Let fossil fuel industry fund research”
I have reservations about this federally funded university study on the dairy industry reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.
Industries knew the importance of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at the United Nations’ 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. President George H. W. Bush signed an agreement at the summit.
Besides being too little in the fight against global warming, UW-Madison’s research grant seems too late.
Unfortunately for us, few U.S. industries took the threat of climate change seriously enough to begin researching ways to reduce emissions 20 years ago.
Now that we are beginning to experience effects of the increasingly warmer atmosphere — rising sea levels, higher temperatures, melting polar ice caps — the Department of Agriculture finally decides it’s time to fund research into reducing dairy’s contribution to the “problem” (catastrophe) of global warming.
Who should fund the studies? Global warming scientists have pinpointed the majority of this problem to fossil fuel burning. That industry should be tapped to fund the lion’s share of funding, not the American taxpayers.
— Michael Neuman, Madison
“Let farmers lead the way”
Of course research is key to helping Wisconsin farmers deal with climate change. And not just farmers — research helps all of us.
When humanity began large-scale fossil fuel burning by industrializing, we unintentionally began a planetary experiment on the effects of adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
We didn’t realize then we might threaten our survival, but thanks to scientists we understand it now. The vast majority of climate scientists agree climate change is real, primarily human-induced and dangerous if unchecked.
So I’m delighted the university will be researching how to lower emissions in the dairy industry. But research is just the beginning. We must also act on what we learn. We need good federal climate policy.
The best idea I’ve seen, based on economic research, is a steadily-rising fee on carbon-based fuels so they reflect their true cost to society, with a return of the revenue to households to cushion the impact of rising prices.
Both liberal and conservative economists have concluded this is the most effective way to stimulate the change we need in our energy system. Many opportunities will arise as we make this change, and I would love to see our farmers lead the way.
— Madeleine Para, Madison
9. President Obama “Tweets” about Global Warming
But scientists don’t have political pull, and too often are marginalized by the traditional media. We need political leaders leading on climate issues, and by sending this tweet to his 31,532,141 followers, President Obama is ensuring that this analysis will get the attention it deserves.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveys_of_scientists’_views_on_climate_change
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/16/1209402/-Skeptical-Science-flattens-deniers-97-of-peer-reviewed-papers-say-humans-causing-climate-change
8. NOAA: Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide Reaches Milestone of 400 PPM in Earth’s Atmosphere
On May 9, the daily mean concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mauna Loa, Hawaii, surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) for the first time since measurements began in 1958. Independent measurements made by both NOAA and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have been approaching this level during the past week. It marks an important milestone because Mauna Loa, as the oldest continuous carbon dioxide (CO2) measurement station in the world, is the primary global benchmark site for monitoring the increase of this potent heat-trapping gas.
Carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by fossil fuel burning and other human activities is the most significant greenhouse gas (GHG) contributing to climate change. Its concentration has increased every year since scientists started making measurements on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano more than five decades ago. The rate of increase has accelerated since the measurements started, from about 0.7 ppm per year in the late 1950s to 2.1 ppm per year during the last 10 years.
“That increase is not a surprise to scientists,” said NOAA senior scientist Pieter Tans, with the Global Monitoring Division of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. “The evidence is conclusive that the strong growth of global CO2 emissions from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas is driving the acceleration.”
Before the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, global average CO2 was about 280 ppm. During the last 800,000 years, CO2 fluctuated between about 180 ppm during ice ages and 280 ppm during interglacial warm periods. Today’s rate of increase is more than 100 times faster than the increase that occurred when the last ice age ended.
It was researcher Charles David Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, who began measuring carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa in 1958, initiating now what is known as the “Keeling Curve.” His son, Ralph Keeling, also a geochemist at Scripps, has continued the Scripps measurement record since his father’s death in 2005.
“There’s no stopping CO2 from reaching 400 ppm,” said Ralph Keeling. “That’s now a done deal. But what happens from here on still matters to climate, and it’s still under our control. It mainly comes down to how much we continue to rely on fossil fuels for energy.”
NOAA scientists with the Global Monitoring Division have made around-the-clock measurements there since 1974. Having two programs independently measure the greenhouse gas provides confidence that the measurements are correct.
Moreover, similar increases of CO2 are seen all over the world by many international scientists. NOAA, for example, which runs a global, cooperative air sampling network, reported last year that all Arctic sites in its network reached 400 ppm for the first time. These high values were a prelude to what is now being observed at 
http://http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/weekly.html”>Mauna Loa, a site in the subtropics, this year. Sites in the Southern Hemisphere will follow during the next few years. The increase in the Northern Hemisphere is always a little ahead of the Southern Hemisphere because most of the emissions driving the CO2 increase take place in the north.
Once emitted, CO2 added to the atmosphere and oceans remains for thousands of years. Thus, climate changes forced by CO2 depend primarily on cumulative emissions, making it progressively more and more difficult to avoid further substantial climate change.
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