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A look at atmospheric CO2 concentration

Dr. Roy Spencer takes a 50-year look at the stunning rise of CO2 in our atmosphere:

50 Years of CO2: Time for a Vision Test
Now that there have been 50 full years of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration monitoring at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, I thought January 1, 2009 would be an appropriate time to take a nostalgic look back.

As you well know from Al Gore�s movie (remember? It�s the one you were required to come to English class and watch or the teacher would fail your kid), we are now pumping 70 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every day as if it�s an �open sewer�.

Well, 50 years of that kind of pollution is really taking its toll. So, without further ado, here�s what 50 years of increasing levels of CO2 looks like on the Big Island:

As you can see, there has been a rapid�what? You can�t see it?�oh, I�m sorry. It�s that flat line at the bottom of the graph�here let me change the vertical scale so it runs from 0 to 10% of the atmosphere, rather than 0 to 100%�.

Read the rest to see the whole CO2 "issue" in its true perspective. And Dr. Spencer is someone certainly qualified to talk about this:

Roy W. Spencer received his Ph.D. in meteorology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1981. Before becoming a Principal Research Scientist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in 2001, he was a Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA�s Marshall Space Flight Center, where he and Dr. John Christy received NASA�s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for their global temperature monitoring work with satellites. Dr. Spencer�s work with NASA continues as the U.S. Science Team leader for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer flying on NASA�s Aqua satellite. He has provided congressional testimony several times on the subject of global warming.

Posted by DaveH at January 11, 2009 1:14 PM