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Thursday June 11, 2009
CO2 passes 390 to break dangerous, ancient record
Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (USA) Atmospheric CO2 reached 390.18 parts per million (ppm) in the month of May 2009, according to scientific data just 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 388.50 ppm in May 2008.
These rising levels are significantly higher than the natural range (~180 ppm to 300 ppm) that existed for at least 800,000 years until the start of the industrial revolution.
Nature needs 100 years to undo past 23 years of CO2 rise
In the past 23 years, atmospheric CO2 has been rising further beyond the upper limite for safe CO2 concentrations, that being 350 parts per million (ppm). CO2 levels rose 40 ppm during this period, from 350.35 ppm in May 1986 to 390.18 ppm in May 2009. Let's say, for the sake of illustration, that we humans figured out how to completely turn our carbon emissions down to zero. How long would it take for Nature to do her wonderful magic and get atmospheric CO2 back to 350? Here is what the Interntional Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tells us:
Complete elimination of CO2 emissions is estimated to lead to a slow decrease in atmospheric CO2 of about 40 ppm over the 21st century.
-- IPCC AR4 FAQ 10.3
The problem is far more than the impacts that CO2 is having on the climate system (and the oceans, sea ice, water availability, economies and let's not forget about other species). It is the fact that CO2 emissions are moving in the wrong direction, further and further away from zero.
CO2 | Selected atmospheric data since 1958
May 2009: 390.18 parts per million (ppm)
May 2008: 388.50
May 2007: 386.53
May 2006: 384.94
May 2005: 382.45
May 2004: 380.42
May 2003: 378.54
May 1999: 370.66
May 1989: 355.70
May 1979: 339.02
May 1969: 324.34
May 1959: 318.29
Click here to see the full set of Mauna Loa monthly mean concentrations for atmospheric CO2
CO2 | Short term trend
April 2009: 389.46 parts per million
May 2009: 390.18 ppm
The CO2 level in May is usually the seasonal peak for the year. In the past 51 years, since the instrument record began at Mauna Loa, the monthly mean concentration for May has been the seasonal peak in 47 of the past 51 years.
June 2009:
When data for June 2009 is released, expect atmospheric CO2 to decline from the May 2009 level. This should continue each month until September or October, when CO2 will again begin its seasonal increase. Since June1958, the monthly mean concentration for June CO2 has tended to be slightly lower than it was the month before. There has been one exception in the past 51 years. In June 1979, atmospheric CO2 was 0.18 ppm higher than the month before.
More
>> About the seasonal cycle for atmospheric CO2
>> Click here to see the full set of Mauna Loa monthly mean CO2 (ppm)
CO2 | Rate of Increase
Using the monthly mean data for atmospheric CO2 (Mauna Loa Observatory), the editor of this report calculated the 10 year average rate of change for year-over-year May CO2 in parts per million (ppm):
April 2000 - April 2009: 1.95 ppm (average increase per year)
April 1990 - April 1999: 1.50 ppm
April 1980 - April 1989: 1.67 ppm
April 1970 - April 1979: 1.17 ppm
April 1960 - April 1969: 0.90 ppm
Nobel Laureats call for peak in CO2 emissions by 2015
 By Stacey Feldman
The world must confine the global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius or it will face an apocalyptic situation where climate change is no longer within our control. Click here to read the full story at solveclimate.org.
Annual CO2 emissions could rise 39% by 2030
 By Stacy Morford
The latest estimates of how worldwide energy use will explode over the next 20 years demonstrate the unprecedented level of global cooperation that will be necessary to avert a climate crisis. Click here to read full story at solveclimate.org.
UN says go to the streets. 350.org eyes Oct 24 as day of global action
Message to Non-governmental organizations:
The problem I have is that when we all get back home – it’s the potential losers that have the ear of the politicians and not the potential winners. Very big corporations who employ few people and have a modest contribution to GDP outweigh millions of small and medium enterprises who contribute billions. If you could get your members out on the street before Copenhagen that would be incredibly valuable.
-- Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary,
United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change
On June 10, 2009, global organizer 350.org added this brief post to the 350.org website, simply saying the organizers are up for the challenge. For a good many months, 350.org has been helping people plug into and prepare for a day of global climate action on October 24, 2009. You can get ready too.
Open invitation to you from Bill McKibben and environmental leaders around the world:
On October 24, we will stand together as one planet and call for a fair global climate treaty. United by a common call to action, we'll make it clear: the world needs an international plan that meets the latest science and gets us back to safety.
-- On the 350.org website
More
>> 350.org | UN tells us: Get in the streets!
>> 350.org | Global invitation for climate action on October 24, 2009
>> 350.org | 9 step plan for organizing your climate action event
>> 350.org | Register your 'October 24' climate action today
Earth Under Fire | How global warming is changing the world
 Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming is Changing the World (by Gary Braasch) takes a comprehensive look at the worldwide effects of climate change. In dramatic photographs, maps and quotes from world climate science leaders, this one-of-a-kind book shows how the earth is being changed right now by rising greenhouse gases and atmospheric temperatures. The book is the result of a six-year effort by author and photojournalist Gary Braasch who followed scientists to 23 nations on all continents to witness their studies and the effects of climate change as they happened.
Learn more about Gary Braasch and Earth Under Fire
>> Earth Under Fire Website
>> Braasch interview at Bloomberg HQ in New York
Excerpt from a review in Nature (climate change reports):
Perhaps Braasch should have played only his strong suit: documenting the eff ects of a warming world. But he takes the plunge into addressing the question of how to meet this challenge, and his risk is rewarded. What normally would be a dull repetition of emissions reduction policies becomes, in this author’s hands, a refreshing take on theories, facts and scientific opinions, sprinkled with comment from leading policymakers. Braasch has told the story of climate change in a new way by bringing together startling and breathtaking imagery with personal accounts and the best available scientific evidence.
— Martin Parry, co-chair of IPCC Working Group II (Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability).
Martin Parrty is also wiith the Centre for Environmental Policy at
Imperial College London.
The power of Gary Braasch's personal witness to the climate crisis makes this essential reading for every citizen.
— Al Gore
Business Green | UK Will Double Kyoto Cuts by 2010
Guardian | Wales plans energy self-sufficiency with renewables in 20 years
Politics of CC | Leaders talk about priorities for making a low-carbon transition
Integrallife | Lester Brown & Jim Garrison: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
Herald Sun | Danish Minister to Australia: How the Danes came clean
U of Melbourne | Bill McKibben on building an international climate movement
The Guardian | NASA Scientist: public deserves the full picture on climate change
CO2Now.org just shifted to solar!
You wouldn't know it, so we thought we'd tell it. CO2Now.org has just made the move from a conventional hosting service to an established and reliable service that uses servers powered directly from solar panels. And the website widgets that people and companies are using to display atmospheric CO2 on their websites? All those graphic files are being "served" to computer screens planet wide (hundreds of thousands of times per month) from servers that run on solar power. This means zero carbon emissions right here and now on planet Earth. Next, we'll help show others how to shift to an affordable and reliable solar hosting service. Stay tuned.
Acknowledgements
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Scripps Institution of Oceanography (both in the USA) for the data that is presented in this newsletter and at CO2Now.org.
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About Atmosphere Monthly
Atmospheric Monthly is a free, monthly email publication distributed worldwide by CO2Now.org and Pro Oxygen of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
CO2Now.org and Atmospheric Monthly are made possible by private indviduals who manage to fit these meaningful side projects into their busy lives.
Editor
Michael McGee
phone | 1-250-884-6760
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