Global climate change exposes an interesting observation: the great battle between ideologues and politicians against the scientific community about the reality of climate change exposes the confusion between belief and factual understanding. For instance, if a quarter (a 25 cent coin) lies on a table and people observe it there should be a100% agreement that it is a quarter. It is hard factual evidence. Anyone who says it’s not really a quarter would be looked upon with great suspect. The quarter represents a case in fact-based understanding. The person who says it’s not really a quarter bases their position on their belief. We’ll get back to the quarter.

Belief is a very curious phenomenon. For instance, our local Native American tribe, the Lenape, believed that many animals including turtles had sacred powers. They believed that if a turtle wondered into a village containing a sick person, that person would be healed and become very lucky. The Okehocking tribe that maintained a summer hunting camp just east of West Chester on Route 3 was a turtle worshiping tribe.

Beliefs run across religious, philosophical, and ideological divides or can be a combination of these. In the religious community there are ten known non-Christian religions and fifteen recognized Protestant Denominations in the United States who, for the most part, claim that their way is the only way to God. Which one is right and how can they be sure?

The British philosopher Stephen Law described some belief systems (including belief in homeopathy, psychic powers and alien abduction) as "claptrap" and said that they "draw people in and hold them captive so they become willing slaves ... if you get sucked in, it can be extremely difficult to think your way clear again". That describes the extreme “shock jock” news programs of today.

Belief that the economy is the only thing that counts is another example. As much as capitalist like to demonize socialists (I’m not supporting socialism), the fact is Capitalism is a failed system too. Look where we are right now! Capitalists only care about the next quarter earnings. The Marcellus Shale issue is a perfect example.  They are willing to destroy people’s water quality and communities to keep their earnings optimal. One curious thing about the socialist accusation from capitalists is, why won’t they admit that when taxpayers pay over $91 Billion to subsidize big oil companies, at the same time the oil companies are gouging us at the pumps racking up historic profits - that that is socialism? The “people” are supporting the oil industry with our tax dollars. This is not free enterprise market-based business, yet they support the tax subsidies?

Back to the quarter, the scientific facts about climate change are as real as that twenty-five cent peace. The facts come from NASA, The Snow and Ice Data Center, NOWA, and some other scientific organizations. The facts are rock-solid. Skeptics disputing the facts are like someone saying that the quarter isn’t really a quarter.

In my fourteen years involvement with the scientific community researching climate change I have never seen one “peer reviewed” scientific study that disputes the facts about climate change. In addition, there are over 2,500 climatologists that say climate change is a very serious problem that has passed the threshold of stopping some very unpleasant future repercussions. If you pay attention to the droughts and wildfires in the southwest, the floods and tornados in the Midwest, and extreme weather events around the world, you will realize climate change is here now.  The skeptics deliberately promoted unsubstantiated beliefs as fact to keep their quarterly earnings up.  The cost for not fact-checking information will cost us all.

Beer drinkers should unite

Published: Tuesday, June 14, 2011

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By RICHARD WHITEFORD, Guest Columnist

One of the most essential needs for human survival is clean water; without it you cannot survive.

A watershed area is the foundation of the water supply surrounding a particular stream or river. If you allow it to get polluted, you jeopardize the health of everyone who drinks its water. The best way to describe a watershed is that it looks like a naked tree. The top part of the tree, the canopy, is the headwaters area. The tips and the very top branches of the tree are analogous to the small tributaries that make up the headwaters.

These tributaries flow into bigger streams which are analogous to the thicker branches growing from the trunk. The main river corridor is analogous to the tree's trunk. Where the river meets the bay is analogous to the tree trunk meeting the earth. It is a large hydraulic system.

In the Brandywine Valley, at the beginning of colonial settlement, Lenape Indians and early European settlers could lie on their stomachs and drink from the Brandywine. It was pristine, pure, cold water. Fast forward to 2011; the population in the headwaters of the east branch of the Brandywine north of Downingtown is over 50,000 people.

Now due to lawn treatment chemicals from residential homes and golf courses, and industrial and agricultural pollutants you do not dare drink water directly from the stream. Even though the headwater areas are vital for protecting water quality and quantity, it is important to protect the entire watershed area to ensure safe drinking water. Any dangerous chemicals or pollutants introduced into the stream anywhere in the stream corridor will be detrimental to everyone downstream from that point.

The further from farm fields and housing developments where fertilizers and other chemicals can get into the water, the more pure the water remains.

The focus in this article is on the upper east branch between Honey Brook and Downingtown. This area is targeted for heavy residential development which will threaten the integrity of this water. The bad economy is the only thing that has prevented this area from getting trounced so far. Development converts water filtration areas into water runoff areas by replacing natural land with impervious rooftops and driveways. Protecting this watershed is vital to assure safe drinking water for hundreds of thousands of Chester County residents.

Over many years conservationists struggled to protect this watershed but industrial and residential development trumped many preservation efforts. There just hasn't been enough public concern or knowledge about the watershed's importance to protect it -- until perhaps now.

What might that be, you ask? Beer! Not just any beer, but possibly the finest beer on the planet. Victory Brewery in Downingtown, an internationally respected brewery, whose Prima Pils, chosen by The New York Times as the number one, world's best Pilsner is totally dependent on the water quality of the Upper East Branch of the Brandywine to maintain its quality.

If every lover of Victory beer realized just how utterly reliant the protection of this watershed is to assure the impeccable quality of that beautiful cold golden-amber flow from the tap to their glass, they would protect this watershed with life and limb. Beer loyalists are like this, you know.

Now this is not an advertisement for Victory Brewery, but knowing how fervent beer lovers are, and considering that nothing else seems to have worked, can you imagine an organization called Beer Drinkers United for Watershed Protection rising up and organizing, raising money, and lobbying the government to designate the upper east branch an exceptional value stream?

Imagine signs along roads that read, "You are now Entering the Victory Brewery Watershed Area." Beer lovers rise up! Protect your watershed! Protect your beer!

(Richard Whiteford of Downingtown is an environmental communications consultant.)

PENNSYLVANIA CAMPAIGN FOR CLEAN WATER

www.pacleanwatercampaign.org

1315 Walnut Street, #1650

Philadelphia PA 19107

215-545-0250 phone  

215-545-2315 fax

June 7, 2011              FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:          Myron Arnowitt, Clean Water Action           412-592-1283

                        Jeff Schmidt, Sierra Club                             717-232-0101

                        Adam Garber, PennEnvironment                973-986-8992

Hundreds at Capitol Rally for Action on Marcellus Drilling

Largest Rally in Harrisburg Calls for Drilling Moratorium and Environmental Protections

(Harrisburg) – Hundreds of Pennsylvania residents rallied at the State Capitol today protesting the state legislature’s inaction on Marcellus Shale drilling.  The coalition of groups holding the rally called it the largest that Harrisburg has seen to date protesting Marcellus Shale gas drilling.

The coalition called for:

1. A moratorium on further drilling in Pennsylvania until a full cumulative impact analysis on gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale is conducted.

2. Improved protections from gas drilling for drinking water supplies and rivers.

3. Ensuring that gas drillers pay their fair share in taxes, and utilizing these funds to restore cuts to the DEP budget.

4. Require full disclosure by gas drillers of all chemicals used.

5. Maintain the moratorium on further leasing of State Forest land for gas drilling.

Groups sponsoring the rally and lobby day included: PA Campaign for Clean Water, Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, Delaware Riverkeeper Network, PennEnvironment, Gas Truth of Central PA, League of Women Voters of PA, Physicians for Social Responsibility Philadelphia, Marcellus Protest, EARTHWORKS Oil and Gas Accountability Project, Green Party of Philadelphia, Mountain Watershed Association, Responsible Drilling Alliance.

Crystal Stroud, a resident of Towanda, PA, in Bradford County, described her health problems caused by drinking water contaminated with barium and other toxins from nearby gas drilling.  “No one is receiving help from our DEP, local, state or federal governments.  Our family has become collateral damage!  We are just 1 of the 33% failure rate of these gas companies. The failure to keep the residents of Bradford County’s wells contaminant free,” she stated.

Other speakers at the rally included Josh Fox, the creator of the film documentary, GASLAND, and Craig Saunter, a resident of Dimock, PA, where considerable water contamination from drilling has occurred.  Also speaking was Jonathan Jeffers, a former worker in Pennsylvania for Bronco Drilling, who described the neglect he saw for health, safety, and the environment while working on gas drilling jobs.

Myron Arnowitt, PA State Director for Clean Water Action, stated, “Drilling has been going on for nearly four years now, but still our state legislature has taken no action to protect residents from harm.  Legislators should take note that the crowds in the Capitol calling for action keep getting bigger.”  In addition to attending the rally, protesters made over 160 appointments with state representatives and senators, covering almost every corner of the state.

Several legislators attended the rally, many of whom have introduced legislation on the issue.  Senator Daylin Leach (D-Montgomery) stated, “We are the only state that doesn't tax them.  70% of Pennsylvanians understand this and want a tax.  Last year and half alone, drillers racked up over 1500 violations.  A severance tax will hold the industry accountable and ensure that the people of Pennsylvania are not left footing the bill.”

"The people of Pennsylvania are alarmed at the growing list of pollution incidents at gas drilling sites across the state," said Jeff Schmidt, Director of the Sierra Club Pennsylvania Chapter. "They are here today because they know that Pennsylvania's gas drilling law and regulations don't provide enough protection for our health or the environment.  We don't need an industry-dominated Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission, whose roll has been to stall the needed reforms.  We call on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to immediately enact amendments to our antiquated OIl and Gas Act legislation, such as HB 971, to protect our communities," he concluded.              

“Every day, the gas industry succeeds in making its voice heard, trying to convince us and our decision-makers that Marcellus Shale drilling isn’t the biggest public health and environmental threat to hit Pennsylvania in a generation,” said Erika Staaf with PennEnvironment. “Yet poll after poll tells us that the majority of Pennsylvanians want industry to pay its fair share in taxes and want clean air and clean water. We’re here to make our voices heard and tell our leaders exactly that.”

“The elected officials of Pennsylvania need to listen to the people who live and work here -- we need protection from the gas industry’s out of control violations through a statewide drilling permit moratorium,” said Tracy Carluccio, Deputy Director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network.

"Elected officials heard loudly and clearly today that they have a duty to protect communities from the rush to drill," said Nadia Steinzor, Marcellus Regional Organizer for Earthworks Oil & Gas Accountability Project. "Citizens are simply asking for health and the environment to be given priority over industry profit."

#          #          #

One of the most essential needs for human survival is clean water; without it you cannot survive.

A watershed area is the foundation of the water supply surrounding a particular stream or river. If you allow it to get polluted, you jeopardize the health of everyone who drinks water from it. The best way to describe a watershed is that it looks like a naked tree.  The top part of the tree, the canopy, is the headwaters area. The tips and the very top branches of the tree are analogous to the small tributaries that make up the headwaters. These tributaries flow into bigger streams which are analogous to the thicker branches growing from the trunk. The main river corridor is analogous to the tree’s trunk. Where the river meets the bay is analogous to the tree trunk meeting the earth. It is a large hydraulic system.

In the Brandywine Valley, before colonial settlement, Lenape Indians could lie on their stomachs and drink from the Brandywine. It was pristine pure cold water.  Fast forward to 2011, the population in the headwaters of the east branch of the Brandywine north of Downingtown is over 50,000 people. Now due to lawn treatment chemicals from residential homes and golf courses and industrial and agricultural pollutants you do not dare drink water directly from the stream. Even though the headwater areas are vital for protecting water quality and quantity, it is important to protect the entire watershed area to insure safe drinking water. Any dangerous chemicals or pollutants introduced into the stream anywhere in the stream corridor will be detrimental to everyone downstream from that point.

The further from farm fields and housing developments where fertilizers and other chemicals can get into the water, the more pure the water remains. The focus in this article is on the upper east branch between Honeybrook and Downingtown. This area is targeted for heavy residential development which will threaten the integrity of this water. The bad economy is the only thing that has prevented this area from getting trounced so far. Development converts water filtration areas into water runoff areas by replacing natural land with impervious rooftops and driveways. Protecting this watershed is vital to assure safe drinking water for hundreds of thousands of Chester County residents.

Over many years conservationists struggled to protect this watershed but industrial and residential development trumped many preservation efforts. There just hasn’t been enough public concern or knowledge about the watershed’s importance to protect it - until perhaps now. What might that be you ask? Beer! Not just any beer, but possibly the finest beer on the Planet. Victory Brewery in Downingtown, an internationally respected brewery, who’s Prima Pils, chosen by the New York Times as the number one, world’s best Pilsner is totally dependent on the water quality of the Upper East Branch of the Brandywine to maintain its quality. 

 If every lover of Victory beer realized just how utterly reliant the protection of this watershed is to assure the impeccable quality of that beautiful cold golden-amber flow from the tap to their glass, they would protect this watershed with life and limb. Beer loyalists are like this you know.

Now this is not an advertisement for Victory Brewery, but knowing how fervent beer lovers are, and considering that nothing else seems to have worked, can you imagine an organization called Beer Drinkers United for Watershed Protection rising up and organizing, raising money, and lobbying the government to designate the upper east branch an exceptional value stream? Imagine signs along roads that read, “You are now Entering the Victory Brewery Watershed Area.”  Beer lovers rise up! Protect your watershed! Protect your beer! 

This is a very important video that addresses one of the biggest lies that climate deniers continue to perpetuate. Please watch it.

Science News

Solar Power Without Solar Cells: A Hidden Magnetic Effect of Light Could Make It Possible

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2011) — A dramatic and surprising magnetic effect of light discovered by University of Michigan researchers could lead to solar power without traditional semiconductor-based solar cells.

---

The researchers found a way to make an "optical battery," said Stephen Rand, a professor in the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Physics and Applied Physics.
In the process, they overturned a century-old tenet of physics.
"You could stare at the equations of motion all day and you will not see this possibility. We've all been taught that this doesn't happen," said Rand, an author of a paper on the work published in the Journal of Applied Physics. "It's a very odd interaction. That's why it's been overlooked for more than 100 years."
Light has electric and magnetic components. Until now, scientists thought the effects of the magnetic field were so weak that they could be ignored. What Rand and his colleagues found is that at the right intensity, when light is traveling through a material that does not conduct electricity, the light field can generate magnetic effects that are 100 million times stronger than previously expected. Under these circumstances, the magnetic effects develop strength equivalent to a strong electric effect.
"This could lead to a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation," Rand said. "In solar cells, the light goes into a material, gets absorbed and creates heat. Here, we expect to have a very low heat load. Instead of the light being absorbed, energy is stored in the magnetic moment. Intense magnetization can be induced by intense light and then it is ultimately capable of providing a capacitive power source."
What makes this possible is a previously undetected brand of "optical rectification," says William Fisher, a doctoral student in applied physics. In traditional optical rectification, light's electric field causes a charge separation, or a pulling apart of the positive and negative charges in a material. This sets up a voltage, similar to that in a battery. This electric effect had previously been detected only in crystalline materials that possessed a certain symmetry.
Rand and Fisher found that under the right circumstances and in other types of materials, the light's magnetic field can also create optical rectification.
"It turns out that the magnetic field starts curving the electrons into a C-shape and they move forward a little each time," Fisher said. "That C-shape of charge motion generates both an electric dipole and a magnetic dipole. If we can set up many of these in a row in a long fiber, we can make a huge voltage and by extracting that voltage, we can use it as a power source."
The light must be shone through a material that does not conduct electricity, such as glass. And it must be focused to an intensity of 10 million watts per square centimeter. Sunlight isn't this intense on its own, but new materials are being sought that would work at lower intensities, Fisher said.
"In our most recent paper, we show that incoherent light like sunlight is theoretically almost as effective in producing charge separation as laser light is," Fisher said.
This new technique could make solar power cheaper, the researchers say. They predict that with improved materials they could achieve 10 percent efficiency in converting solar power to useable energy. That's equivalent to today's commercial-grade solar cells.
"To manufacture modern solar cells, you have to do extensive semiconductor processing," Fisher said. "All we would need are lenses to focus the light and a fiber to guide it. Glass works for both. It's already made in bulk, and it doesn't require as much processing. Transparent ceramics might be even better."
In experiments this summer, the researchers will work on harnessing this power with laser light, and then with sunlight.
The paper is titled "Optically-induced charge separation and terahertz emission in unbiased dielectrics." The university is pursuing patent protection for the intellectual property.

Small changes make big difference in lowering fossil fuel pollution:

http://tcktcktck.org/2011/04/africa-south-asia-small-scale-climate-adaptations-big-difference/

It's nice when you get an acknowledgeable from Al Gore.

http://blog.algore.com/2011/04/a_climate_project_presenter_pr.html

Climate deniers have lost all credibility!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/opinion/04krugman.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

I am featured on the Climate Project Website.
http://us.theclimateproject.org/

EV Charging Network Coming to PA       On March 11, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced a partnership with 350Green, a developer of electric vehicle (EV) charging station networks, to design, build, and operate a network of 22 EV fast charging and 44 Level 2 charging stations across the state. A substantial portion of the chargers will be concentrated in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh regions. Construction is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2011 and be complete by mid-2012.    If PA DEP projections of EV purchases are correct, 350Green estimates that by 2020 its Pennsylvania charging network can help displace 260 million gallons of fuel, which represents $580 million in avoided costs and 1.6 million cumulative tons of CO2 emissions avoided per year.

The denier lies about Al Gore get exposed again:

http://climateprogress.org/2011/03/28/koch-richard-muller-gore-cicerone-polar-bears-friedman/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29

 

NASA's latest climate report below shows "a global increase in extremely hot summers. From 1951 - 1980 extremely hot summers increased from 2 - 3 % to as much as 30 - 40 % to 2010. It also show that while it was unusually cold this winter in the eastern United States and northern Eurasia, Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay (between Canada and Greenland) were essentially ice-free, the first recorded time that ice-free conditions lasted so long."

http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2011/20110327_Perceptions.pdf

The liar deniers got caught red handed spreading lies about Al Gore:
http://climateprogress.org/2011/03/28/koch-richard-muller-gore-cicerone-polar-bears-friedman/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+climateprogress%2FlCrX+%28Climate+Progress%29

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=items&id=14863:09pcflower

Quakers run a muck!

Just 5 days after the disastrous Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, 250,000 people congregated on the Mall in Washington DC for the 40^th Anniversary Earth Day celebration.

While oil and gas surged from the broken pipe in the Gulf destroying marine ecosystems, killing dolphins, turtles, birds and other creatures and oozed destructively toward shore, I watched a sea of 250,000 people gather in front of the Earth Day stage.  I waited in expectation for protests against off shore drilling to begin, especially when White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) Secretary, Nancy Sutley took the stage.

 Talk about a colossal missed opportunity for the environmental community to send an important “no off shore drilling” message to national media and the government! No uprisings from the Sierra Club, Earthjustice or even Greenpeace, or from the quarter million attendees. The silence was deafening. What has become of the environmental movement? 

Cyber activism, in my view, along with discouragement over the lack of fair balanced media coverage, and the industry supported money-flush anti-environmental organizations, are destroying the spirit of the environmental movement.

 All national environmental organizations now rely on websites and email blasts to rally activists. Sure it’s cheaper and saves trees by reducing paper use, but to me websites are like retail stores; they are totally dependent on walk-in business. Email blasts are “outbound” or “outreach” efforts, but many people ignore them because the message always asks for money and therefore smacks of a fundraising ploy. Plus you usually get upwards of 15 requests from different organizations asking you to contact your legislator about the same issue.  After a while you can’t remember to what you responded or from which group. It’s ridiculous.

Out of curiosity, I asked a few legislators’ Aids what it’s like on the receiving end when email blasts come in. Several responded, “We can tell when a special interest blast comes in and we acknowledge it, but we also know that it comes from a national environmental organization and not our constituents. It doesn’t count nearly as much as when constituents show up in our office or write us a personal letter.”

The most damaging part of cyber activism to the “movement”, in my opinion, is when activists respond to e-alerts they think their job is done; their conscious is clear; they did their part and therefore there’s no more sweat equity required. The email has negligible impact on the legislator, especially when the legislator gets sizable campaign donations from anti-environmental groups. 

The end result, when you need to get a huge Wisconsin rally turnout at a legislator’s in-district office or at a serious environmental disaster site for a protest, very few show up. Or you hold the 40^th Anniversary Earth Day event on the Mall in Washington DC during the worst oil spill in history and out of a quarter of a million spectators no one protests.

 It’s time to slap the Defibrillator on the environmental movement. We need to resuscitate the environmental movement by getting people to stand up and be counted, in person, and to show up in larger numbers as they did in Wisconsin.

The anti-environmentalists have money power; our only power is people power. Mouse pad activism showed no measurable results at COP-15 in getting a world agreement on climate policy nor did it get us an energy bill in America. We’re getting trounced! It’s time to rethink our strategy and get people out from behind their laptops and back in the oppositions face. The environmental movement needs to show the same kind of energy and turnout numbers that happened in Wisconsin and demand the needed changes that will save our planet.  

CO2 has risen some more from burning fossil fuels. Here's the latest report from NOOA:

Recent Mauna Loa CO₂

January 2011:     391.19 ppm 
 PDF Version

The graph shows recent monthly mean carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii.

The last four complete years of the Mauna Loa CO₂ record plus the current year are shown. Data are reported as a dry air mole fraction defined as the number of molecules of carbon dioxide divided by the number of all molecules in air, including CO₂ itself, after water vapor has been removed. The mole fraction is expressed as parts per million (ppm). Example: 0.000400 is expressed as 400 ppm.

In the above figure, the dashed red line with diamond symbols represents the monthly mean values, centered on the middle of each month. The black line with the square symbols represents the same, after correction for the average seasonal cycle. The latter is determined as a moving average of SEVEN adjacent seasonal cycles centered on the month to be corrected, except for the first and last THREE and one-half years of the record, where the seasonal cycle has been averaged over the first and last SEVEN years, respectively.

The last year of data are still preliminary, pending recalibrations of reference gases and other quality control checks. The Mauna Loa data are being obtained at an altitude of 3400 m in the northern subtropics, and may not be the same as the globally averaged CO₂ concentration at the surface.

Full Mauna Loa CO₂ record

 PDF Version

Monthly mean atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii

The carbon dioxide data (red curve), measured as the mole fraction in dry air, on Mauna Loa constitute the longest record of direct measurements of CO₂ in the atmosphere. They were started by C. David Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in March of 1958 at a facility of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [Keeling, 1976]. NOAA started its own CO₂measurements in May of 1974, and they have run in parallel with those made by Scripps since then [Thoning, 1989]. The black curve represents the seasonally corrected data.

Data are reported as a dry mole fraction defined as the number of molecules of carbon dioxide divided by the number of molecules of dry air multiplied by one million (ppm).

Annual Mean Growth Rate for Mauna Loa, Hawaii

The table shows annual mean carbon dioxide growth rates for Mauna Loa.

The annual mean rate of growth of CO₂ in a given year is the difference in concentration between the end of December and the start of January of that year. If used as an average for the globe, it would represent the sum of all CO₂ added to, and removed from, the atmosphere during the year by human activities and by natural processes. There is a small amount of month-to-month variability in the CO₂ concentration that may be caused by anomalies of the winds or weather systems arriving at Mauna Loa. This variability would not be representative of the underlying trend for the northern hemisphere which Mauna Loa is intended to represent. Therefore, we finalize our estimate for the annual mean growth rate of the previous year in March, by using the average of the most recent November-February months, corrected for the average seasonal cycle, as the trend value for January 1. Our estimate for the annual mean growth rate (based on the Mauna Loa data) is obtained by subtracting the same four-month average centered on the previous January 1. Preliminary values for the previous year are calculated in January and in February.

The estimated uncertainty in the Mauna Loa annual mean growth rate is 0.11 ppm/yr. This estimate is based on the standard deviation of the differences between monthly mean values measured independently by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and by NOAA/ESRL.

Data

The complete Mauna Loa CO₂ records described on this page are available.

•  Mauna Loa CO₂ monthly mean data
•  Mauna Loa CO₂ annual mean data
•  Mauna Loa CO₂ annual mean growth rates

Additional CO₂ data from Mauna Loa and other worldwide sampling sites can be found using the ESRL/GMD Data Navigator of public data sets.

These values are subject to change depending on quality control checks of the measured data, but any revisions are expected to be small. The estimated annual growth rates for Mauna Loa are close, but not identical, to the global growth rates. The standard deviation of the differences is 0.26 ppm/yr.

• See change log and notes
• A description of how we make measurements at Mauna Loa.

How to reference content from this page 
Dr. Pieter Tans, NOAA/ESRL (www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/)

Contact 

• Pieter Tans, NOAA/ESRL, ph. 303 497 6678, Pieter.Tans@noaa.gov

Further Reading 

• C.D. Keeling, R.B. Bacastow, A.E. Bainbridge, C.A. Ekdahl, P.R. Guenther, and L.S. Waterman, Atmospheric carbon dioxide variations at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, Tellus, vol. 28, 538-551, 1976.
• K.W. Thoning, P.P. Tans, and W.D. Komhyr Atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa Observatory 2. Analysis of the NOAA GMCC data, 1974-1985, J. Geophys. Research, vol. 94, 8549-8565, 1989.