In “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore presents his case on climate change based on the “Keeling Curve,” measurements of the increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.
These first records of rising CO2 levels were taken in the 1950’s by Charles David Keeling of UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Even then scientists were aware of the green house effect created by CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere. Keeling tracked the increasing levels of CO2 for decades, but it didn’t take long for him to link the rising CO2 levels with the burning of fossil fuels. Although it was known that the burning of fossil fuels created CO2, it was widely believed that the ocean absorbed all of that excess carbon dioxide. Keeling was the first person to prove that CO2 was accumulating in the atmosphere, as it still is today.
In “The Scientific Case for Urgent Action to Limit Climate Change,” Distinguished Professor Emeritus Richard Somerville of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography presents a case based on some of the initial measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere taken by Keeling.
In this video, Somerville further explains this research and his ideas for how to reduce the emissions causing climate change. If you want more information on climate change and ocean science, check out the “Perspectives on Ocean Science” series.
Climate warming due to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is only part of the “CO2 problem” affecting life on the planet. In fact, much of the CO2 emitted from burning fossil fuels is absorbed by the ocean, causing ocean acidification, a chemical phenomenon threatening marine life.
Every summer, the California surfing community enjoys the arrival of a long, regular swell from the southwest. The origin of the swell is in the winter storms of the southern hemisphere, some in the Indian Ocean, half way around the Earth.