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.
'July CO2' continues dangerous rise: 51 straight years
Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (USA) Atmospheric CO2 reached 387.81 parts per million (ppm) in the month of July 2009, according to scientific data released August 10, 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 386.38 ppm one year earlier in July 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 July CO2 has been higher each year relative to the prior July. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the chief human-made greenhouse gas that is responsible for global warming.
July 2009: 387.81 parts per million (ppm)
July 2008: 386.38
July 2007: 384.45
July 2006: 382.15
July 2005: 380.60
July 2004: 377.48
July 2003: 376.65
July 1999: 369.10
July 1989: 353.79
July 1979: 337.60
July 1969: 325.88
July 1959: 315.86
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. Also, atmospheric CO2 for August has always been lower than the atmospheric CO2 for July. To eliminate the seasonal effect, compare data for the same month in different years.
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. With the data that is available up to last month, the editor of Atmosphere Monthly calculated the ten-year averages set out below. The data shows an acceleartion trend that is more apparent and up to date than the trend description found in the latest IPCC report.
July 2000 - July 2009: 1.87 ppm (average increase per year)
July 1990 - July 1999: 1.53 ppm
July 1980 - July 1989: 1.62 ppm
July 1970 - July 1979: 1.17 ppm
July 1960 - July 1969: 0.93 ppm
... outstanding revelations and events ...
Global warming made worse by seabed methane release
More than 250 plumes of bubbles of methane gas are rising from beneath the seabed of the West Spitsbergen continental margin in the Arctic. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and its release from under the ocean floor is attributed to the warming of an Arctic current by 1°C over the last 30 years. Findings are the result of a collaboration of scientists at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton with researchers from the University of Birmingham, Royal Holloway London and IFM-Geomar in Germany.
Communicating Climate Change (C3) is a nation-wide project in the United States that fosters innovation and partnerships between research centers, the media, and science centers. The project also showcases the role of science centers in educating the general public about global climate change.
Across the country, twelve science centers are participating with scientific research sites to develop local indicators of climate change. Many of the science centers participating in the study, including the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego, CA, are recruiting the general public to volunteer as “citizen scientists.”
Project participants learn about global warming by observing and monitoring local indicators of climate change, Examples include disrupted bird migration patterns in Philadelphia and the failing health of pine forests in Arizona.
In San Diego, interested volunteers can act as “Phenology Reporters,” making observations about the timing of plants flowering across San Diego County. The observational data will be entered into an online database and compared with historical data from the Museum of Natural History’s extensive plant collections that stretch back to the 1870s. By comparing current trends with historical data, scientists hope to find out if regional climate changes are influencing the diversity, distribution or flowering regimes of San Diego flora. Volunteers who are interested in making weekly observations of the plant species in their neighborhoods should contact the Fleet Science Center at (619) 238-1233.
The following science centers are participating in C3 projects across the United States:
HRH Prince of Wales introduces his Rainforest Project to stabilize global warming
“If we lose the battle against tropical deforestation, we lose the battle against climate change.” These are the words of Prince Charles of the United Kingdom. They can be seen on the home page of his website, the Prince’s Rainforests Project at rainforest sos.org. The front page also states:
The destruction of the rainforests releases more CO2 than all the world’s cars, planes and ships put together. They also store a fifth of the world’s man-made emissions. So, if we are to combat climate change, stopping deforestation is vital.
It’s been 12 years since the Kyoto Protocol was agreed upon at a meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Kyoto Protocol is set to expire in 2012. In recent years, considerable effort has been made to reach agreement on a replacement climate treaty. The negotiation process culminates when representatives of 192 countries meet for more than a week in Copenhagen, Denmark, starting December 7, 2009.
Much energy and hope have been invested in reaching a constructive outcome from this major climate conference. Articles, editorials and columns abound, both online and off. Still, here's a blog that stands out by covering important perspectives and issues that others are not: the ‘Compassionate Climate Action' blog by Julie Johnston of Greenheart Education (Pender Island, Canada).
Julie’s day-by-day countdown puts readers in touch with the issues that are at stake, and what the global agreements and changes in climate mean for us, long after conference participants have wrapped up the meetings in Copenhagen. Julie's blog is recommended reading.
New Zealanders open eyes to global climate challenges
August 12, 2009 At 1 p.m. on August 12, hundreds of New Zealanders paused for five minutes with wool hats pulled over their eyes. These Kiwis then proceeded to lift their hats at the same time. In doing so, they are showing their refusal to have the wool pulled over their eyes about the New Zealand climate actions that are needed and possible. This is their home-spun salute to targets based in climate science, and a refute of the much more convenient targets of their New Zealand government. For the full story, check out the following website excerpt, links and video (with an Eyes Wide Open song by Oleh)...
From the 'Eyes Wide Open' website in New Zealand:
‘We’ are everyday New Zealanders who want to see a better future, who see how serious climate change is, and can see the benefits of taking action now to reduce New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2020.
Our Governments emissions reduction target for New Zealand of 10% by 2020 is not based on what the science says is needed and puts us on track for catastrophic climate change. We are calling for a 40% reduction (from 1990 levels) target not to be a world leader, but because based on the science, it is our fair share.
We’re not sheep, we’re world-leading, ingenious Kiwis, and we have our Eyes Wide Open to the opportunities that will make our country shine!
Saturday October 24, 2009: Global day of climate action
By Michael McGee
August 19, 2009
This picture? It is a photo that I took in the front yard of my home in Canada. The sign? Previously, I went online to the 350 store, made the purchase, and had it shipped from the United States. You could call this one small action that helps get the word out about all the local "350" climate action events that are being organized around the world on the same day.
On October 24, 2009, the world’s largest-ever day of global climate action will happen in cities, towns and villas in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. This is the day for individuals, families, groups, associations, congregations, businesses, and governments to organize events, share ideas and show support for a planetary effort to push rising CO2 downward toward safer levels of 350 parts per million (ppm) and less.
This movement started when author Bill McKibben asked a world-leading climate scientist, Dr. James Hansen, what level of CO2 is safe? Although difficult to answer, the question led to a paper that reviewed paleoclimate science and observed climate changes to suggest that the upper limit of safe levels of CO2 is 350 ppm, and that the period in which we overshoot this levels must be kept to a minimum.
With that fresh research, Bill McKibben teamed up with a number of organizers to create 350.org which is now based in San Francisco, with event co-ordinators located in dozens of countries. In global terms, this small team is leveraging the power of the grassroots by inviting people everywhere to organize and attend small and large events on the same day, October 24, 2009, to create a global day of climate action. They are inviting you to create an event in your community or take part in an event that others have organized nearby. To get ideas, register an event, find events near you (or get a 350 T-shirt or event sign), links are provided below.
December 2009 is the conference for the United Nations to set the climate policy direction of national governments, possibly for the next decade and a half. This October 24 is a day for all of us to speak up about getting our future on safer ground.
Denmark is host to the 15th annual “COP15” conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The conference will be held from December 7, 2009 – December 18, 2009. The Danish government is aiming “to achieve an agreement that both reduces the total quantity of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and is supported by as many countries as possible.” The important political goal is to reach agreement on a climate treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. For background, the following article was written by the Ministry of Climate and Energy of Denmark, and found on the official COP15 website.
From Rio to Copenhagen
From 3 to 14 June 1992 heads of state and representatives from 172 governments across the whole world met in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The backgound to the meeting was gloomy. Two years previously the UN’s climate panel (IPCC), in its first synthesis report, pointed out that there was a real risk that human activities – especially the consumption of coal, oil and gas – could affect the earth’s environment to a hitherto unseen and potentially very serious extent. “The earth’s future is in danger” was the message.
When I think of my carbon footprint, I see a five-toe imprint in warm, golden-brown sand. I sense more comfort than discomfort, and a space that can fill a size 11 shoe. When it comes to a person's carbon footprint, there is something unnatural about thinking it is much larger than the size of, well, a person's foot. It might also be that I have never confronted the true size of my carbon imprint.
For those who at least sense the importance of understanding our personal and global emissions, a new art exhibition,CO2 CUBES , is about to help us see and sense what is not visible to the naked eye. Are you ready?
On August 5, 2009, I attended the first public Transition Town meeting in my hometown of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Victoria is one of a few hundred towns, villages and cities where local people are, among other things, working to lead a deliberate transition away from planet-heating fossil fuels and address the twin (economic) problem of peak oil.
Earlier, in the August 2009 edition of Focus, Victoria's monthly magazine about people, ideas and culture, editor Leslie Campbell penned an article about the Transition Movement and its deliberate approach to lifestyle changes made inevitable by peak oil, and advisable by climate change.
The Plus 100 Media listing that was introduced in July 2009 is not available this month due to insufficient time. Time permitting, Plus 100 Media will return in September.
When, how and who discovered ‘the global warming effect?’ To better understand what is happening to the Earth right now, look back to the history of how humanity discovered and developed scientific awareness of greenhouse gases and their effect on the atmosphere, oceans, climate and societies.
When it comes to the history of climate science, a leading source is found in The Discovery of Global Warming, the highly-acclaimed book by Dr. Spencer Weart, a physicist and climate science historian. The Discovery of Global Warming is not just a book. It is also a series of online articles at the website of the American Institute of Physics.
To make this well-researched information more accessible, a new Discovery of Global Warming webpage was just added to the CO2Now website. The page is dedicated to helping CO2Now visitors find links to all of Spencer Weart’s online articles.
To get you going, three starting links are provided. As a bonus, a fourth link takes you to a web page that features an autobiographical article by Charles David Keeling (via SIO and Annual Review) who started high-precision measurements and monitoring of atmospheric CO2 in the 1950s.
In this photo, you are looking at the solar panels that power the CO2Now.org website. The panels take the sun's energy and create the electricity that powers the web servers inside the AISO data center that is visible behind the panels. Energy is also stored in batteries so the electrical power is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Opportunities exist to help produce Atmosphere Monthly, this free electronic publication from CO2Now.org. Interested? Then let's team up and make a good thing better. Here's a list of volunteer, part-time roles that need doing, and that can be custom designed to suit your personal interests, availability and aims.
Editorial advisors
Editors
Writers
Photo editors
Graphic artist
Translators
Site quality checkers
Subscription promotions
Whether you want to gain resume-building experience, or apply expertise to a project that is helping others make a difference, do think about AtmosphereMonthly...and how your unique contribution can help make the atmosphere a safer place. Michael McGee looks forward to hearing from you at
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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 articles, news tips and web links that were used in this edition of Atmosphere Monthly, hearty thanks to...
Erin Burns
Leslie Campbell
Richard Pauli
Anna Pollock
Spencer Weart
And many thanks for the financial contribution:
Richard Habgood
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.
Here are some of unsolicited comments that were received in the past month. Feedback, suggestions and corrections are welcome!
“I am positively supprized of the high quality of your publication!”
~ PS 090722
"Global Warming is a crock of shit. Just so you know. I would want to know if I was wasting my time on."
~ TB 090716
"Your newsletter rocks!"
~ JJ 090716
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.
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. 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 "Charney 130" widget that is used on a large variety of types of websites. Should you wish to offer suggestions about widget colours and designs, send a quick note to
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In the last edition of Atmosphere Monthly, people were invited to comment on the "Kyoto 364" widget design. No direct comments were received. Generally, few comments have been received about the widget designs over the past year. And yet, they are continually being added to websites. The conclusion? A way will be found to expand the widget size and design options. Even a Kyoto 364 is possible, although 80% red makes it too overpowering.
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.
Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (USA) Atmospheric CO2 reached 387.81 parts per million (ppm) in the month of July 2009, according to scientific data released August 10, 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 386.38 ppm one year earlier in July 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. [
More than 250 plumes of bubbles of methane gas are rising from beneath the seabed of the West Spitsbergen continental margin in the Arctic. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and its release from under the ocean floor is attributed to the warming of an Arctic current by 1°C over the last 30 years. Findings are the result of a collaboration of scientists at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton with researchers from the University of Birmingham, Royal Holloway London and IFM-Geomar in Germany.
Rainforest SOS | 
It’s been 12 years since the Kyoto Protocol was agreed upon at a meeting of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Kyoto Protocol is set to expire in 2012. In recent years, considerable effort has been made to reach agreement on a replacement climate treaty. The negotiation process culminates when representatives of 192 countries meet for more than a week in Copenhagen, Denmark, starting December 7, 2009. 
From the 'Eyes Wide Open' website in New Zealand:
YouTube | 
This picture? It is a photo that I took in the front yard of my home in Canada. The sign? Previously, I went online to the 
With that fresh research, Bill McKibben teamed up with a number of organizers to create 350.org which is now based in San Francisco, with event co-ordinators located in dozens of countries. In global terms, this small team is leveraging the power of the grassroots by inviting people everywhere to organize and attend small and large events on the same day, October 24, 2009, to create a global day of climate action. They are inviting you to create an event in your community or take part in an event that others have organized nearby. To get ideas, register an event, find events near you (or get a 350 T-shirt or event sign), links are provided below. 
Denmark is host to the 15th annual “COP15” conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The conference will be held from December 7, 2009 – December 18, 2009. The Danish government is aiming “to achieve an agreement that both reduces the total quantity of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and is supported by as many countries as possible.” The important political goal is to reach agreement on a climate treaty to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that expires in 2012. For background, the following article was written by the Ministry of Climate and Energy of Denmark, and found on the official COP15 website. 
When I think of my carbon footprint, I see a five-toe imprint in warm, golden-brown sand. I sense more comfort than discomfort, and a space that can fill a size 11 shoe. When it comes to a person's carbon footprint, there is something unnatural about thinking it is much larger than the size of, well, a person's foot. It might also be that I have never confronted the true size of my carbon imprint. 
On August 5, 2009, I attended the first public 
When, how and who discovered ‘the global warming effect?’ To better understand what is happening to the Earth right now, look back to the history of how humanity discovered and developed scientific awareness of greenhouse gases and their effect on the atmosphere, oceans, climate and societies. 
CO2Now | 
Editorial advisors
