Current carbon dioxide levels are able to be measured by simply measuring the air itself, in Mauna Loa, a method created by Charles Keeling in the 50's. These records were compared to the ice core CO2 records I have been talking about, and they lined up.
As you can see, the increase in CO2 seems to coincide also with an increase in fossil fuel use.This is one of my favorite graphs. Again, an ice core record (this data is from Vostok, an Antarctic ice core), showing carbon dioxide levels graphed for the past 400,000 years. This patterned records back about 650,000years (as shown in previous post).
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increase and decrease on a cycle, between approximately 180 and 290 ppmv (parts per million by volume). However, current measured levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are ~390 ppmv. In other words, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere presently is almost 1.5X higher than it has been for the past 650,000 years.This is what has me sold. This does not fit any sort of natural cycle that we have seen, and it seems to line up with the increase in fossil fuel burning in an exact manner.
Hey Kate!
ReplyDeleteGreat job with this explanation. I really like that it is written in a way that a "non scientist" can understand. That is not easy to do and you did great. Can you add a post about the "medieval warming period"? I have heard about this in the news and am curious about how it relates to/refutes/doesn't refute arguments for climate change.