|
Earth's CO2 home page was first launched on December 17, 2007 at themostimportantnumber.org. The site was redesigned and relaunched at CO2Now.org in September 2008. The chronology below notes some of the developments since September 2008.
September 29, 2007
This is the day when the idea for CO2Now.org was sparked. It happened during a talk by Al Gore in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada: If atmospheric CO2 is at unnaturally-high levels and still rising, some questions come to mind: How high is CO2 right now? Why isn't the world talking about atmospheric CO2 levels? What targets do we have for atmospheric CO2? Despite the availability of some excellent science websites, it was confirmed that no website exists that makes it easy for people to see and understand the world's most current data for atmospheric CO2.
November 11, 2007
A few friends hatched a plan to launch themostimportantnumber.org using the powerful open source platform, Ruby on Rails.
December 17, 2007
Themostimportantnumber.org was launched as a modest, one-page website. The page displayed the mean concentration for atmospheric CO2 (as measured at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii) with a 50 year chart (the Keeling curve) for atmospheric CO2. The CO2 level has been updated as the latest monthly CO2 level becomes available from the Mauna Loa Observatory.
It was realized that Ruby on Rails was not the appropriate platform at such an early and experimental stage in the life of the website. Themostimportantnumber.org was launched with Dreamweaver 8 software to enable rapid updates and changes without needing more technical skills.
January 11, 2008
The premiere edition of a CO2 newsletter was emailed to about 16 people. The monthly newsletter features an update on the latest data for current CO2 in the atmosphere.
January 12, 2008
A logo design contest concluded for a website logo and graphics. The contest was hosted at an Australian website, 99designs.com, and yielded more than 80 designs from 5 continents. In the end, three winning designs were selected for use on the site (or at upcoming sites related to CO2Now.org). The designers are from Pakistan, Germany and Romania.
January 24, 2008
As an experiment to promote the website with video, a video response was created to YouTube’s “Davos Question” about what must be done to make the world a better place in 2008. The video emphasized the need to pay attention to the current level of CO2 as it changes in the atmosphere. As a result, the NOAA temperature and CO2 graphs used in the video were incorporated by YouTube into a two-minute mashup video that was played at the opening of the World Economic Forum session on Global Corporate Citizenship in Davos, Switzerland. Click here to see the mashup video that session participants watched in Davos.
April 21, 2008
The Earth’s first current CO2 widget is tested at fireflylabs.com and shortly after at urbanprospect.com. The CO2 widget enables any website owner or blogger to display the latest CO2 reading on their website.
Work began to switch themostimportantnumber.org to a Joomla! open source software content management system.
June 17, 2008
The decision was made to rename and relocate themostimportantnumber.org to CO2Now.org. (Joomla! will be used to launch the new site.)
Why change the name? In April 2007, NASA climatologist James Hansen published a scientific paper showing that the safe level of atmospheric CO2 is 350 parts per million (ppm) or lower, and author Bill McKibben correctly described “350” as the most important number for the planet. A website about the current level of CO2 is really about an ever-changing number and a trend, not a single number. Only one number can be the most important, and 350 is it.
June 18, 2008
350 pounds of carbon offsets were purchased via BrigherPlanet.com and retired as a gift for displaying a 350.org badge at themostimportantnumber.org a few weeks before the official launch of 350.org. BrighterPlanet.com and 350.org are operated by groups based in Vermont, USA.
June 19, 2008
The first current CO2 widget is hosted on the commonenergy.org site for the University of Victoria’s Common Energy group of students, faculty and staff.
June 20, 2008
SolveClimate.org, a daily news site for climate information, featured the current CO2Widget in its Climate Chronicles.
September 2008
Themostimportantnumber.org was replaced by CO2Now.org, a revamped website created with Joomla (with thanks to the efforts of the open source community). The new site is launched with an expanded suite of CO2 widgets in a half dozen sizes and styles.
March 2009
The first CO2 Speaker's Corner video is posted online, with thanks to Maeva Gauthier, a marine biology student who recorded her message during a Students On Ice expedition to the Antarctica.
June 2009
CO2Now.org switches to a web hosting service that is powered directly by solar panels.
CO2 data updates begin via Twitter (@CO2Now)
July 2009
With thanks to Dr. Spencer Weart, a special web page is added to CO2Now.org with links to Dr. Weart's articles (at the website of the American Institute of Physics) and highly-acclaimed book about The Discovery of Global Warming.
October 2009
As of October 20, 2009, the site surpassed 1 million hits in a single month. Site traffic continues to grow.
For the global day of climate action, October 24, 2009, site creator Michael McGee was the lead organizer for a local screening of A Sea Change in partership with the University of Victoria Campus Planning and Sustainability Office, and a number of other community partners. (A big thank you to Rita Fromholt for not just making the event possible, but a success for the 330 people who came to see the film and panel discussion.)
Also on October 24, the interactive CO2 Toaster Widget was launched as a way to get more people interested in atmospheric CO2 levels and what they mean. This was a collaborative effort that was largely made possible by artist Franke James and programmer William James (aka the James Gang).
Read More CO2Now.org | About CO2Now
CO2Now.org | CO2Now is...
|
