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CO2 Report | September 2008 |
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September 5, 2008
CO2 Smashes World Record After 2008 Olympics
Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (USA) In the wake of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, scientific measurements recorded August CO2 levels in the Earth's atmosphere at 384.14 parts per million (ppm). This level smashed all August CO2 records that have been set in the past 800,000 years.
Until 100 years ago, CO2 fluctuated between 180 ppm and 300 ppm. In 2008, CO2 levels continue to move further away from the long-term, natural range. This trend is at the heart of the global warming and climate change problems.
The latest CO2 results were published by scientists after the Closing Ceremonies in Beijing. No Olympic medals were awarded for the new record.
CO2 has been measured continuously and directly from the atmosphere since March 1958 at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Data is recorded and reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Published data is considered preliminary for the first year and may be subject to adjustment. When a revision occurs, it is typically minor.
CO2 is Made More Transparent
Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (USA) We know that carbon dioxide is an invisible gas. Now, the scientific reporting of atmosphereic carbon dioxide levels has become more transparent.
Here is the story.
In early August, NOAA reported the average CO2 level for the month of July 2008, but there were two problems. An unfortunate equipment error occured during July which meant that CO2 levels were recorded for only a portion of the month. When the mean concentration for July CO2 was published August 3, the wrong value was published inadvertently. To set things straight, a more representative value for July CO2 was published on August 4.
In the end, the method for calculating monthly mean was enhanced. This resulted in a review of the monthly results for Mauna Loa CO2 throughout the 50-year instrument record.
The NOAA response to the situations at hand had another positive outcome. Starting August 3, 2008, NOAA set up a "Trends Log" to disclose notable incidents when they occur. This makes the details of the important CO2 record more transparent for those who are using and watching atmospheric levels very closely.
Pieter Tans and others at NOAA are to be applauded for giving such care and attention to finding ways of improving the CO2 monitoring work started by Dave Keeling and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. These types of developments can strenghten the connection that people have with science and the measurements of CO2 levels in the atmosphere.
For more discussion and detail, see the WattsUpWithThat blog, Mauna Loa to Improve CO2 Reporting, which started August 7, 2008.
A New CO2 Website Gets Launched
Victoria, British Columbia (Canada) Our original site, themostimportantnumber.org gets a new name and a new look this month as it starts to switch over to CO2Now.org. The new site is far from finished, but already it makes it easier for people to keep an eye on atmospheric CO2.
Earth's CO2 home page. The latest CO2 level is always on display on every page of the site. Yet we aim to make CO2 visible far beyond this website. That is why people can sign up for this monthly email and automatically get the latest CO2 update as the changes happen. (If you were receiving monthly emails from themostimportantnumber.org, the emails will come from CO2Now.org from now on.)
There is another simple option. Anyone with a blog or website can add a CO2 widget to their site. The latest CO2 measurement will then be visible to all your site visitors. The CO2 updates happen without any effort on your part.
These are just a few of the cool CO 2 things that are now available at CO2Now.org. Expect more in the future.
The above icon was designed by Gavrila Valentin of Focsani, Romania. It's an eye-catching design that draws much-needed focus to the heart of the global warming problem: atmospheric CO2.
Five Widgets To Make CO2 Visible Far and Wide
Victoria, British Columbia (Canada) Larbon Solutions today announced the availability of five new CO2 widgets for use by website and blog owners. The widget makes it easy to display the current CO2 level directly from their own sites.
A widget is simple to add. Just copy a small amount of html code onto a web page. When visitors come to your site, they see the widget that is automatically loaded and updated from the CO2Now website.
Once a widget has been added, there is nothing more to do. The CO2 level in the atmosphere is always on display and kept current.
The colour graphic at the top of this email is one of the widget designs that can be displayed on your site as a widget. To see an example of a widget on another person's site, go to the SolveClimate blog pages. On those pages, you will find the CO2 widget below.
Every person and organization that displays the current CO 2 level from their website is helping a lot of other people see and think more about the root causes of global warming and climate change. It all helps people see what is actually happening to Earth's atmosphere. Remember, we aren't solving global warming and climate change if atmospheric CO 2 is still rising and moving further away from safe levels of 350 ppm or lower.
Check out the CO2 widget page and consider adding one or more of the widgets to your site. If you know someone with a website, you can help by forwarding this email to them. How does it help? You make the core problem of rising CO 2 visible far and wide.
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Contact:
Michael McGee
Larbon Solutions
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
email:
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phone: 1-250-884-6760
About Larbon Solutions
Larbon is short for low carbon. Larbon Solutions is focussed on responsible and fast ways to move directly from the high carbon present to the inevitable low carbon future. A first step is to make rising CO2 levels visible far and wide. That is what CO2Now.org is all about. The larger objective is to get greenhouse gas emissions so low that they are almost zero. That is what needs to happen before we can actually solve global warming and get greenhouse gas levels back to safe levels. We can't solve these problems and keep filling the atmosphere with fresh CO2...month after month, gigatonne after gigatonne.
CO2Now is a Larbon Solutions website that is being set up by private individuals who have managed to fit a meaningful side project into their busy week. |
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