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July 16, 2009
Highest 'June CO2' level in past 2.1 million years
 Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (USA) Atmospheric CO2 reached 389.42 parts per million (ppm) in the month of June 2009, according to scientific data released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States. At the same monitoring location, the Mauna Loa Observatory, atmospheric CO2 was 387.88 ppm one year earlier in June 2008. These rising levels are significantly higher than the natural range (~180 ppm to 300 ppm) that existed for at least 2.1 million years until the start of the industrial revolution. [reference]
Since the start of high-precision instrument monitoring at the Mauna Loa Observatory in 1958, the monthly mean concentration for June CO2 has been higher each year relative to the prior June. The exception is June 1965, 48 years ago, when CO2 dropped by 0.02 ppm.
This edition of Atmosphere Monthly
Some content and design changes have been introduced with this edition of Atmosphere Monthly. What do you get this month? As always, Atmosphere Monthly starts with the world's latest data and trend update for atmospheric CO2. Once the numbers are out of the way, it starts to look more like a traditional newsletter. With Atmosphere Monthly, you get a mixture of information from sources around the world about the impacts of rising CO2 levels and stories about how the response of people, communities and institutions. I would not be surprised if you gain at least one new insight from the July edition of Atmosphere Monthly, and that's without trying too hard. One more thing, feel free to send suggestions, corrections, critiques. My email address is at the bottom.
~ Michael McGee, Editor
June 2009: 389.42 parts per million (ppm)
June 2008: 387.88
June 2007: 386.01
June 2006: 384.01
June 2005: 382.14
June 2004: 379.66
June 2003: 378.21
June 1999: 370.10
June 1989: 355.11
June 1979: 339.20
June 1969: 326.76
June 1959: 318.16
>>> Click here to see the full set of monthly data for atmospheric CO2 at the Mauna Loa Observatory
May 2009: 390.18
June 2009: 389.42
July 2009:
Atmospheric CO2 reached a seasonal peak in May 2009. This happens most years. Expect atmospheric CO2 to continue to decline until the seasonal low point, typically September or October. For every year since 1958 when direct instrument measurements began at the Mauna Loa Observatory, atmospheric CO2 for July has always been lower than atmospheric CO2 for June. To eliminate the seasonal effect, compare data for the same month in different years.
More
>>> About the seasonal cycle for atmospheric CO2
>>> Click here to see the full set of Mauna Loa monthly mean CO2 data
CO2 | Rate of Increase
The following is an excerpt from the 2007 "physical science basis" report by the International Panel on Climate Change Working Group:
The annual CO2 concentration growth rate was larger during the last 10 years (1995-2005 average: 1.9ppm per year) than it has been since the beginning of continuous direct atmospheric measurements (1960-2005 average: 1.4ppm per year), although there is year-to-year variability in growth rates. [IPCC AR4 WG1 Chapter 2 Page 37]
CO2 data is available now, and we can use the world's most current CO2 data to see whether the acceleration trend is continuing or turning around. Based on the latest data published for atmospheric CO2 (Mauna Loa Observatory), the editor of this report calculated the 10 year average rate of change as set out below:
June 2000 - June 2009: 1.93 ppm (average increase per year)
June 1990 - June 1999: 1.50 ppm
June 1980 - June 1989: 1.59 ppm
June 1970 - June 1979: 1.24 ppm
June 1960 - June 1969: 0.86 ppm
...outstanding revelations and events from the past month...
Researchers conclude: CO2 now at highest point in 2.1 million years
 Science Daily Researchers have reconstructed atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the past 2.1 million years in the sharpest detail yet, shedding new light on its role in the earth's cycles of cooling and warming.
The study, in the June 19 issue of the journal Science, is the latest to rule out a drop in CO2 as the cause for earth's ice ages growing longer and more intense some 850,000 years ago. But it also confirms many researchers' suspicion that higher carbon dioxide levels coincided with warmer intervals during the study period.
The authors show that peak CO2 levels over the last 2.1 million years averaged only 280 parts per million; but today, CO2 is at 385 parts per million, or 38% higher. This finding means that researchers will need to look back further in time for an analog to modern day climate change.
>>> Read the full article in Science Daily (June 21, 2009)
IPCC Chair: Climate change: unequivocal reality beyond scientific doubt
 “Today, international action on climate change is urgent and essential. Indeed, there can no longer be any debate about the need to act, because the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, of which I am chairman, has established climate change as an unequivocal reality beyond scientific doubt.”
~ Rajendra Pachauri, IPCC Chairman
UN COP15 Copenhagen | The Climate Imperative | June 26 2009
Father of 350 target arrested over convictions about coal
 West Virginia (USA) On June 23, 2009, James Hansen, the NASA climate scientist and lead author of a scientific paper that identifies 350 parts per million as the upper limit for safe levels of CO2, was among 31 persons arrested on charges of obstructing officers and impeding traffic during a protest against mountaintop mining.
NY Times DOT Earth | Hansen of NASA Arrested in Coal Country | Andrew Revkin | June 23, 2009
Columbia U | Strategies to address global warming & Is Sundance Kid a criminal? | James Hansen | July 13, 2009
SafeCO2 | Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim? | Links to paper by Hansen et al
There is a new number in town
by Michael McGee
July 16, 2009
 The town is New York City. The number is 3.6 trillion, as in the metric tons of long-lived greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. The place is 33rd Street and 7th Avenue, near Madison Square Garden, Penn Station and Macy’s. The medium is a digital billboard, 70 feet high. You could say it’s in the heart of the city where 500,000 commuters pass by every day. The launch was June 18, 2009, compliments of the Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management division.
As Newsweek summarized, “National debt used to be the big number we all lived in fear of. Now it’s greenhouse gases.” The “carbon counter” is not just visible from New York City. You can view the ever-growing number right now from your computer screen. Go to the website just launched by the Deutsche Bank website at know-the-number.com. Watch the number and try this at the same time. Count out one second intervals...“one one thousand”, “two one thousand,” “three one thousand.” Then note the number of metric tons that are accumulating in the atmosphere for each second. By my count, it’s a thousand metric tons per second. It makes me sad.
And yet, the number is not built on emotion. The number includes atmospheric CO2 which accounts for 63.5% of the global warming effect, plus 23 other long-lived greenhouse gases. The number was developed in collaboration with scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Climate Change. The know-the-number website states: “At the time of launch [June 18, 2009], the carbon counter shows there are 3.64 trillion metric tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — increasing by approximately 2 billion metric tons per month, which is displayed as 800 tons per second on the sign.”
>>> Read the full blog at CO2Now.org
350 vs. 450 (as in 'parts per million')
By Jon Warnow (Reposted from 350.org)
 Often, people ask: “In real world terms, how does a planet at 350 look any different than a planet at 450.”
There are approximately 2.7 gazillion ways to answer that question, but here’s just one: a planet at 350 has coral reefs. A planet at 450 does not.
Just yesterday, a team of scientists (along with Sir David Attenborough—who we’re hoping will be our next 350 messenger) issued a warning: a planet that stays above 350 for too long is a planet which “condemns coral reefs to extinction in the future, with catastrophic effects for the oceans and the people who depend upon them.”
Still think a planet at 450 might be OK? Check out Bill McKibben's thought's on targets. Also, yesterday’s post from the San Francisco Chronicle puts it quite concisely:
350 or 450? There's a split in scientific and political communities about which number—both represent parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—is the tipping point into dangerous climate change. Actually, it goes sort of like this: Most scientists agree that 350 is the more realistic number, but most politicians say 450 is the best we can shoot for.
Hmm, well put. I guess it's back to organizing the world to get politicians to change their minds. Is your community signed up for an action on October 24 yet? If not, get to it: www.350.org/oct24.
24-year-old tells UN, major nations: ‘cut emissions 40% by 2020’
By Michael McGee
 This is from the UN climate negotiations in April 2009: an insightful short speech by Kirsty Schneeberger, a 24-year old law student in the United Kingdom. It is refreshing to hear a view that is independent of governments and non-governmental organizations (although Kirsty has worked for both). Asking delegates how old they will be in 2050, she points out that she will be 66. She then implores developed countries to aim for a 40% reduction by 2020, and full decarbonisation by 2050, with negative emissions after that.
If her suggested targets were adopted, it would be a plan that would help the 192 signatories to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change achieve their “ultimate objective” of stabilizing greenhouse gases at a safe level in the atmosphere. The link below takes you to a video of Kirsty's speech in Bonn, Germany. Unfortunately, the audio is imperfect. However, the web page includes a story about the writing of the speech and a full transcript. (The transcript does not include the response by the UN moderator who says he cannot say how old he will be in 2050, because he will not be here.)
If I am fortunate enough to be around in 2050, I will be 88. My boys will be 46 and 54. If the world can collectively achieve Kirsty’s vision of full decarbonisation by 2050, that will really be something to celebrate. And is it unrealistic to aim to achieve that even sooner? In any event, there is much work to be done...much to accomplish on a time frame that most might say is impossible.
Intersect | 350 Update: Kirsty speaks in Bonn, Germany
To read more about other advocates for aggressive targets, check out Scotland's new targets (42% by 2020, 80% by 2050), Scots who say Scotland can do better, and the British Columbia Sustainable Energy Association (BCSEA) which aims for a full transition out of fossil fuels by 2030.
Tim Flannery reviews The Vanishing Face of Gaia by James Lovelock
 The Monthly James Lovelock's latest book, The Vanishing Face of Gaia: A Final Warning (Allen Lane, 192pp; $29.95), has an important message. In a few years, or a few decades at most, abrupt changes in Earth's climate will begin, which will end up killing almost all of us and cause the extinction of almost all life on Earth. The tropics and subtropics will be rendered uninhabitable by this shift, and the few survivors will cling to favoured regions such as Britain and New Zealand. Lovelock believes there is little we can do to avert our fate, for the causes of the climatic shift are now so entrenched that they are in all likelihood irreversible. In his view the best we can hope for is personal survival in a world of warring nations or, if we are particularly unfortunate, a world ruled by warlords.
Apocalyptic visions such as this are usually the province of doomsday cults or writers of science fiction. It's unusual to find a scientist advancing one. Yet James Lovelock's scientific credentials are impeccable.
>>> Read Tim Flannery's full review, Goodbye to all that, in the The Monthly (June 2009)
The Adventures of Jimmy Carbon by Erwin Hudelist
 If you’re wondering how or whether you can tell your toddler how CO2 leads to global warming, this may well be the book for you. (Hagadone, $5.99) With fun and lively cartoons, Hudelist easily catches kids’ attention and narrates Jimmy Carbon's adventures in a colourful and engaging way. Jimmy Carbon (C) eventually meets up with Benny Oxy and Janie Gen (O2) to become an inseparable trio (forming, of course, CO2). However, they soon realize that their atmospheric games, such as “bouncing the sun’s rays back to the earth” create troublesome changes for the planet. After the story telling, Hudelist closes the book with a list of suggestions that lets your child participate in keeping Jimmy Carbon in the ground. This is a wonderful little book for nurturing environmental thinking in your child.
Interview with Erwin Hudelist
1. What inspired you to write about Jimmy Carbon?
I wanted to explain to my daughter why and how global warming is created, and just saying "CO2 is the cause" was pretty dry.
2. Do you think children will actually understand Jimmy Carbon’s adventures?
I think so. They will know where carbon comes from. Then they would learn that carbon and oxygen bind in the burning process of an engine etc. I think I have managed to explain these concepts in a very simple way. In addition, I think that the cartoons help children stay focused on the book and get curious what will happen to Jimmy Carbon on the next page. My daughter is four and she and her friends have reminded me and their parents several times to turn our car off so the “Jimmys don’t fly out”.
3. Are you planning more educational projects in the near future?
Yes. Willie the Fastest Worm On Earth is already in production.
"Plus 100" has a double meaning. First, atmospheric CO2 has risen by more than 100 parts per million since the start of the industrial revolution. Second, the "plus 100 media" list gives you more than 100 media stories from around the world that were published within the last month. The full list is found in a separate document. Or, simply scan the short list of about 50 media stories below.
>>> Click here to see the full Plus 100 listing
Solve Climate | Getting Kids and Parents Fired Up About Earth Science
Science Daily | Australia's Climate: Drought And Flooding In Annual Rings Of Tropical Trees
Science Daily | How Aerosols Contribute To Climate Change
Scripps | Scripps researchers tackle key challenge for climate models
>>> Click here to see the full Plus 100 listing
ANU (Aus) | Report: Climate Change 2009 - Faster Change and More Serious Risks
GCP | Global Carbon Project: Report assesses carbon buried in northern permafrost
Scientific American | The Arctic Thaw Could Make Global Warming Worse
Science Daily | Super-size deposits of frozen Arctic carbon could worsen climate change
NY Times | Oxfam Details Economic Impact of Warming
Solve Climate | Kivalina, Alaska: Soon-To-Be Climate Refugees Sue Energy Companies
National Geographic | CO2 levels highest in two million years
Science Daily | CO2 higher today than last 2.1 million years
Skeptical Science | CO2 + temperature correlation over 20th Century
Science Centric | Study documents close relationship between past warming and sea-level rise
Copenhagen (Preparations for the UNFCCC meeting in December 2009)
Nature Reports | Halfway to Copenhagen, no way to 2 °C
COP 15 | Study tags Germany as G8 climate leader, Canada as laggard
National Post | G8 stalemate shows it's time for climate cool-down
Progressive Economics | Canada at the Climate Crossroads
Reuters | Major economies consider halving world CO2
OpenDemocracy | The politics of climate change
Irish Times | Political paralysis as clock ticks on climate change
Guardian | International promises on greenhouse gas emissions
UN COP 15 | Report: Global climate disaster moves closer with unabated emissions
Reuters | Nations May Form Global CO2 Market Without UN Deal
Climate Progress | The Great Transformation: Culture change starting in Copenhagen
Solve Climate | UN Wrap-Up: Copenhagen climate treaty looks increasingly "impossible"
Syndey Morning Herald | CSIRO: Renewables may cost less than coal power
Christian Science Monitor | Green power improves lives in Bangladesh
NY Times | China invests billions in green power
Denver Post | US Western Governors ID ‘renewable energy hubs’
Register-Guard | Chinese Group Plans Oregon Solar Panel Hub
AFP | Bangladesh 'Green Revolution' Starts with Solar Power
Guardian | Scottish parliament agrees tougher 42% target to cut emissions
Southern Fried Science | Big A+ for new movie, 'A Sea Change'
NY Times | Man who led coal plant in China now leads push for wind, solar energy
Guardian | Ireland plots a green revolution
Guardian | Costa Rica is world's greenest, happiest country
Science Daily | Model city Masdar: City to use renewable energy, no CO2 and no waste
Solve Climate | Building a Sustainable School on a Shoestring
Sustainable Business | EU: WWF and business co-promote renewables grid initiative
Times Online | Al Gore invokes spirit of Churchill in battle against climate change
>>> Click here to see the full Plus 100 listiing of media articles
As mentionned earlier, a number of changes are being made to the look and content of Atmosphere Monthly. The hope is that it adds enough value that more peoplw will want to read and share Atmosphere Monthly with friends, colleauges and family members.
 Some readers may recognize part of the new logo for Atmosphere Monthly. The icon logo was designed in January 2008 by Rehan Rasool of Pakistan. It was the logo for themostimportantnumber.org which kept current CO2 posted on the home page from December 17, 2007 until the transition was made to CO2Now.org in September 2008. The change in websites was made after James Hansen published his 2008 paper that identified "350 parts per million" as the upper ceiling for safe concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere, and after Bill McKibben (of 350.org) started referring to 350 as the most important number on the planet.
Atmospheric CO2 updates are now posted on Twitter @CO2Now.
It is important for as many of us as possible to make the links and connections between the chemical changes in the atmosphere, the reductions in Earth's capacity to regenerate the resources we have used, and the choices we have to continue or change for the better. This section is about some additional ways to move forward, and to provide acknowledgement to some of the people and institutions that are specifically helping CO2NOw help others.
Appreciation and Acknowledgement
The CO2 data that is presented in this newsletter and at CO2Now.org is republished from the following sources: the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Scripps Institution of Oceanography, both in the United States. The work of these (and other greenhouse gas monitoring stations) is considered highly important and very much appreciated.
For news tips and web links that influenced this edition of Atmosphere Monthly, thanks is extended to:
- Richard Habgood
- Julie Johnston
- Richard Pauli
Thank you for your financial contribution:
This newsletter and CO2Now.org exist firstly to make the latest CO2 information visible far and wide. Feel free to take advantage of these tools for monitoring and sharing the data that is central to our effort to create a future with a safe, stable climate.
Subscribe | Get the world's most current CO2 updates. It's like getting an email straight from the atmosphere.
Get grounded in the data | Get to know the trend. See the need to turn things around.
Display CO2 | Use a CO2Now widget to share the latest CO2 data with people who visit your website.
Print | 'Copy and paste' a CO2Now graphic in your newspaper or newsletter.
Donate | Help the volunteers cover their costs and do even more. Pay Pal provides options.
Tweet | Follow @CO2Now on Twitter
Contrbute | See a way to help our site improve? Suggestions welcome. Offers of help are amazing.
Subscribe | Get the world's most current CO2 updates. It's like getting an email straight from the atmosphere.
Here are some of the unsolicited comments that were received in the past month. Feedback, suggestions and corrections are welcome!
“Suggestion re CO2 widget - put the numbers (or something) in orange? ...since blue is a "cool" color, the widget now sends a subliminal "all's well"message, since it's all in blue & black tones”
~ AH 090710
“I suspect that the solutions to our 'energy' problem and those implied by too rapid climate change are one and the same .. In a perfect world, I prefer that the 'market' be allowed to alllocate financial resources to those technologies with the best chances to solve the issues with a lesser role played by government.”
~ JS 090709
"Global Warming is a hoax... the government is now hijacking the green movement to tax us to death... and your organization is not helping fight this."
~ AK 090708
"...your CO2 Now web site....it is very good, and I like how you compare CO2 in May with previous Mays. I want to alert you to a few minor errors, though. Low CO2 existed for the last 800,000 years UNTIL the industrial revolution, not SINCE. Also, June 1979 was higher than May 1979 by 0.18 ppm, not by 18 ppm. Thank you for communicating to the general public the urgency of action to curb climate change."
~ PT 090612
Atmosphere Monthly is the official e-newsletter for CO2Now.org, the website that makes it easy to keep an eye on the world's most current CO2 data, almost as soon as measurements are taken directly from the atmosphere. And yet, there is more to CO2Now.org than meets the eye. Although the site is hosted on web servers that get their energy directly from solar panels, that is not the "special sauce" that I am talking about.
Each day at CO2Now.org, hundreds of people visit the CO2Now.org site, and the CO2Now.org web pages are viewed thousands of times. Here's what's cool. Thanks to the owners of more than 100 other websites (based in more than 20 countries), there are about twenty times the number of pages viewed on other websites where a CO2Now widget keeps the latest CO2 data up to date and on display. And although CO2Now.org is currently an English-only site, the widgets are being used on websites with content in more than 10 languages. The widgets are small, but they are an integral part of what CO2Now.org is doing: helping others keep the CO2 data and trend visible far and wide.
The graphic to the left is an archived version of the "Tyndall 200" widget that is used on the websites of businesses, governments, educational institutions and individual bloggers. Starting this month, one of the CO2Now widgets will be archived in each edition of Atmosphere Monthly. And there's more. Also each month, this "widget post" section will include the latest updates and developments about the widgets. Expect the improvements and enhancements to be ongoing.
Why promote the "visibility" of atmospheric CO2? Because, when it comes to monitoring progress on turning global warming around and for getting back to safe atmospheric levels, no other metric is as direct, understandable and current as atmospheric CO2 from the Mauna Loa Observatory. The CO2Now vision includes a multiplication of the number of large and small websites that keep the atmospheric CO2 trend on display for their site visitors. Before we start promoting the CO2Now widgets, and before more widget sizes and designs are made available, the current effort is being put first on finding widget sponsors and revenue sources that will cover the costs of new widget initiatives and rising bandwidth usage.
 As an example of what may become available in the future, the red "Kyoto 364" design is a prototype that has not been put into circulation. This design was created in response to suggestions that there should be a widget with a CO2 graph that is smaller than the Brundtland 600. The "364" represents both the width of the widget (in pixels) and the CO2 level back in December 1997 when agreement was reached on the Kyoto Protocol. This widget illustrates the rise of atmospheric CO2 since the Kyoto Protocol was signed, and the red colour scheme has a different effect than the other widgets that are presently available. Incidentally, one person suggested the use of some less-soothing colours, such as orange. Should you wish to offer suggestions about widget colours and designs, the guidance would be most appreciated at
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Atmosphere Monthly is a free, monthly email publication distributed worldwide by Pro Oxygen of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It is the official newsletter for the Pro Oxygen website, CO2Now.org. Atmosphere Monthly and CO2Now.org are produced independently by private individuals on a part-time basis with personal funds and the help of private donors and contributors. This publication is a strong supporter of the "ultimate objective" shared by 192 signatory countries to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a safe level. Atmosphere monthly and CO2Now.org are working to help achieve early success. The work will not be done until atmospheric CO2 concentrations are falling and oxygen levels are rising. Atmosphere Monthly and CO2Now.org are hosted on web servers powered directly by solar energy.
Editor:
Michael McGee
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