For First Time In History Of Humans, 1-Month Likely CO2 Average Stays Above 400 PPM

[hatrack]

Last year, the monthly average didn’t go above the 400 parts per million (ppm) mark until April, which was the first month in human history with carbon dioxide (CO2) levels that high. Levels stayed that high for a full three months, and they are likely to stay that high for many more this year. In just a few years, CO2 levels will be above this threshold permanently.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been measured at the observatory atop Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano since 1958. That record — called the Keeling Curve, after the scientist who began the measurements, Charles Keeling — has shown the clear rise of CO2 over the decades. The Keeling Curve first recorded a daily level of 400 ppm on May 9, 2013. The following year, CO2 passed that benchmark in March, and this year, on January 1.

“I am not surprised that we are seeing daily means greater than 400 already popping up regularly. Next year that should start happening in November,” Pieter Tans, a climate scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said in an email at the time. CO2 measurements hovered around the 400 ppm line throughout January, but the monthly average was just below that threshold. While a few days in February had averages below 400 ppm, most have been at or above, as have weekly averages.

“So, despite the normal slow down in CO2 growth rate that occurs at Mauna Loa in January and February of most years, February's monthly mean looks certain to be greater than 400 ppm,” Stephen Walker, a scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which runs the Mauna Loa observatory, said in an email.

EDIT

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/400-ppm-co2-february-2015-18710

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Back in the old days we worried about 350.

Slow boiled. The ruling elites don't fucking care. Nothing is going to be done.

[marym625]

2. The number of recs

And replies that this post and others like it get, make me wonder how much we actually care. Or understand. Maybe a combination.

This is horrible. Seriously, how do we come back from this?

[valerief]

3. Declare a war on coal/beef/oil industrialists and nearly all our "representatives."

A real war. With artillery and everything. But most people are too busy trying to get by.

[marym625]

4. Weather Underground

I believe that the only way things will change is just what you said. I also don't know if it will happen. People are complacent and, as you said, just trying to get by.

[valerief]

5. Big Pharma has made sure people are drugged into inertia/indifference.

But the only way to fight oligarchs is with fighting, unfortunately.

[marym625]

10. I agree. n/t

[GliderGuider]

6. E/E was far more engaged a couple of years ago.

Then I think "outrage fatigue" set in.

I don't think we're going to come back from this. That's what prompts me to be quieter these days.

[phantom power]

7. Guess I shouldn't speak for other E/E inhabitants...

but I think it was internalizing the realization that nobody was going to stop burning fossil fuels. There is no level of consequence that will cause that to happen.

[GliderGuider]

9. Same here.

Hey, it was nice while it lasted, and at least we get to live out the rest of our time here in utter amazement. That's not so bad. The awareness sux if you have kids, though.

[marym625]

11. even some of the investigative journalists

That were tackling big oil, seem to have stopped.

Too late

[Hissyspit]

8. But Inhofe made a snowball!

[hatrack]

12. Well, someone's got to stand up for Freedumb!

And he's just the guy.