Global warming is mainly the result of CO2 levels rising in the Earth’s atmosphere. Both atmospheric CO2 and climate change are accelerating. Climate scientists say we have years, not decades, to stabilize CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
To help the world succeed, CO2Now.org makes it easy to see the most current CO2 level and what it means. So, use this site and keep an eye on CO2. Invite others to do the same. Then we can do more to send CO2 in the right direction.
Watch CO2 now and know the score on global warming, practically in real time.
Atmosphere Monthly | November 2009
November 2009
Atmopsheric CO2 hits 2009 bottom in October...
and sets all-time October record of 2.1 million years
Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (USA) Atmospheric CO2 was 384.38 parts per million (ppm) in the month of October 2009, according to scientific data released November 11, 2009, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States. At the same monitoring location, the Mauna Loa Observatory, atmospheric CO2 was 382.98 ppm one year earlier in October 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]
At the same time, atmospheric CO2 reached the annual low for 2009. The reading for September 2009 was 384.79 ppm. For the past 51 years that CO2 has been measured with high-precisions measurements at the world-famous Mauna Loa Observatory, CO2 has always been higher in November than in October. The annual low for atmospheric CO2 either happens in September or October. The annual high ussually happens in May, and in just a few cases, it happens in April. The annual cycle mostly reflects the vegetation cycles in the northern hemisphere where the most land is located.
The annual cycle is a natural phenomenon. The year-over-year rise of atmospheric CO2 concentrations is not.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the chief human-made greenhouse gas that fuels global warming, climate change and ocean acidification. The main anthropogenic source of CO2 emissions is the use of fossil fuels for energy. Atmospheric CO2 levels continue to rise with on a year-over-year basis because carbon emissions from human sources exceed the capacity of the land and oceans to absorb it. The absorbtion of CO2 by the oceans is a natural process that both slows the rate of global warming and adds damaging quantities of carbonic acid to the oceans. The most direct thing that people can do is make decisions and take actions that actually reduce and eliminate the addition of more invisible CO2 into the atmosphere.
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: 1.9 ppm 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]
More recent and detailed CO2 data is published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and theScripps Institution of Oceanography. Using the most recent data for the mean annual concentration of CO2 data, the editor of Atmosphere Monthly calculated the ten-year averages set out below. This gives you rate of change data years ahead of the most recent report of the International Panel on Climate Change.
Reposted from the Stockholm Resilience Centre New approaches are needed to help humanity deal with climate change and other global environmental threats that lie ahead in the 21st century. A group of 28 internationally renowned scientists propose that global biophysical boundaries, identified on the basis of the scientific understanding of the Earth System, can define a ‘safe planetary operating space´ that will allow humanity to continue to develop and thrive for generations to come.
This new approach to sustainable development is conveyed in the coming issue of Nature where the scientists have made a first attempt to identify and quantify a set of nine planetary boundaries. >>>> read full article at SRC
5200 actions + 181 countries = 1 safe direction for CO2
Rising CO2 levels is old news. It just keeps happening. CO2 levels have been rising ever-faster since before 1958 when the late Charles David Keeling started high-precision monitoring of atmospheric CO2 at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.
Last month, CO2 didn’t change direction, but millions of people around the world took action to help get it moving in a downward direction. It happened October 24, 2009, in response to a call by 350.org for a global day of climate action.
The result? More than 5,200 actions were staged on the same day in 181 countries around the planet. It was the largest climate action in the history of humanity, not to mention the largest political action.
Here’s a very brief recap of the fun and demonstrations from around the world on October 24, 2009:
Photos are still being delivered to leaders and media outlets around the world. Here is a statement from Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General to the United Nations, where he recognizes the millions who participated and makes his own call for bold, visionary leadership in Copenhagen.
“I would like to thank the millions of people in 181 countries who participated in 350.org's Day of Climate Action on 24 October. It was one of the most inspiring examples of grassroots political action on global warming the world has ever witnessed. This Day of Climate Action came at a critical time in the global negotiations, and demonstrated that people around the world -- from Ethiopia to India, Paraguay to the United States -- understand the scientific challenge the world faces. I encourage governments to heed the example set by their citizens, and to take strong action in Copenhagen to address this crisis through bold, visionary leadership.”
Here's a brief interview with 350.org founder Bill McKibben in New York on October 24, 2009:
Coming up before the big climate conference in Copenhagen, the Government of Nepal has announced that it will hold a Cabinet Meeting at the Mount Everest Base Camp to highlight the highlight the threat from global warming, which is causing glaciers to melt in the Himalayas. Ministers will climb to 5,360 meters (17,585 feet) under the direction of Pemba Dorje Sherpa, the world record holder for the fastest climb of Mount Everest and an ardent supporter of the 350 target for atmospheric CO2.
If you're one of about 60,000 people who will be going to Copenhagen for the United Nations climate conference starting December 7, 2009, here's a menu of 12 items to consider adding to your own list of things to do while in Copenhagen. There's a suggestion for each day of the conference. Each one can help get us closer to the day when there is a directional change in the atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
1. Listen very carefully to people from every continent every day. Plan to leave the conference with a sense of understanding what the leaders of the world are thinking and saying about climate change, emissions and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.
2. Find opportunities to highlight the leadership of countries like Scotland and Norway and others that are pushing for aggressive targets at the front end and at the back end. Highlight why they think it can be done.
3. Buy quality carbon offsets and minimize emissions as much as possible.
5. Take twenty minutes each day to think about your own emissions. Imagine that you decided to get them close to zero within a number of years (rather than a number of decades). Think about how that could be done?
6. Find a way to help industrialized countries commit to an emissions reduction of 80% by 2050
7. Help all 192 countries agree to commit to an overall, global emissions reduction of 50% by 2050.
9. Encourage delegations and leaders of a few industrialized countries to talk openly of a target for stabilizing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere...a perfectly reasonable suggestion given (1) recent developments in the science (2) the new, global awareness of people around the world and (3) atmospheric stabilization is the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC and the Copenhagen conference (see article 2)
10. Help open up a negotiating pathway that gets the parties to agree to commitments that are legally-binding and significant.
11. Express thanks to Yvo de Boer (and other leaders at the UNFCCC Secretariat) and Mother Earth for doing for more good than most of us would imagine.
12. Celebrate the big achievements on December 18, and start thinking about next steps back home.
We consider the CO2Now widgets on other people’s sitesto be about as important as the CO2Now website itself. The widgets are a tool that distributes the world’s latest data for atmospheric CO2 as measured and reported monthly from the world-famous Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.
Frank James is author of Bothered by My Green Conscience, a series of inspiring visual essays about overcoming the real-world challenges of doing what needs doing.
Thanks a million
In a 13-month period, CO2Now.org traffic went from almost nothing to more than a million hits in a single calendar month. By the end of October 2009, CO2Now traffic didn’t just edge itself over a million hits, it smashed way past it.
The threshold seems significant, and this moment is a good one to pause and acknowledge some of the people and organizations that have contributed in some way.
Thank you to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the other scientific institutions worldwide for continuing your vital monitoring programs for CO2 and other atmospheric gases. Thanks to the owners and administrators of hundreds of website and blogs who use a CO2Now widget to display atmospheric CO2 levels to people who visit your site....including 350.org, the Tyndall Centre for Climate Research, the Indian Youth Climate Network and faculty at the Copenhagen Business School. Thanks to everyone who contributed funds that helped get CO2Now up and running...including family and friends who passed on the climate dividend cheques from the Government of British Columbia (or more)....the McGee family, Mavis Hanson, the McPhail family, Will Spaulding P.Eng., Dr. Jane Bradley, Julie Johnston, Dr. Peter Carter, and Richard Habgood. Thanks to those who have contributed talent and expertise in various ways, notably Jayson Brown, Charles Frank, Joe Melton, Rehan Rasool, Marc Griesinger, Maeva Gauthier, Adam Blainey, Steve Burtch, Franke James, Bill James....a short list that can easily be extended with dozens of other names. More generally, thanks to the Joomla! open source community for making advanced website software so usable and affordable.
And a big thank you to everyone who is helping in some way to make the level of CO2 in the atmosphere more visible, better understood and safer for all.
It's been a while...
It’s been three months. The last edition of Atmosphere Monthly was delivered in August. CO2 data is updated monthly, so what’s up with that?
Decent newsletters take a lot of time to prepare, and this monthly newsletter had to take a back seat so other initiatives could continue...like the consistent and very timely updates of CO2 data on the CO2Now home page and CO2Now widgets, and to get out from behind the keyboard and get involved in the local movement to do something about rising CO2 levels.
Atmosphere Monthly remains a key offering from the CO2Now site. To avoid publishing gaps in the future, upcoming editions will be more focussed on the core function of distributing CO2 data in a timely manner. Expect less in-house content and more information from other sources and contributing writers. Many hands make light work, not to mention better results. So, in case you had wondered about the missing editions of Atmosphere Monthly, it's important to let you know.
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.
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.
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. Atmosphere Monthly and CO2Now.org are hosted on web servers powered directly by solar energy.
Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (USA) Atmospheric CO2 was 384.38 parts per million (ppm) in the month of October 2009, according to scientific data released November 11, 2009, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the United States. At the same monitoring location, the Mauna Loa Observatory, atmospheric CO2 was 382.98 ppm one year earlier in October 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. [
Reposted from the Stockholm Resilience Centre New approaches are needed to help humanity deal with climate change and other global environmental threats that lie ahead in the 21st century. A group of 28 internationally renowned scientists propose that global biophysical boundaries, identified on the basis of the scientific understanding of the Earth System, can define a ‘safe planetary operating space´ that will allow humanity to continue to develop and thrive for generations to come. 
1. Listen very carefully to people from every continent every day. Plan to leave the conference with a sense of understanding what the leaders of the world are thinking and saying about climate change, emissions and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. 
