For this second blog, I would like to briefly touch on the discoveries of Charles Keeling and what those discoveries mean to us and the globe in the present. I will also attempt to simply explain the difference between our emissions of CO2 (artificially) and the emission of CO2 in the atmosphere naturally. And finally, I will explain the impact our emissions have on the ecosystem. 

Charles David Keeling was affiliated with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, from 1956 until his death in 2005. His major areas of interest included the geochemistry of carbon and oxygen and other aspects of atmospheric chemistry, with an emphasis on the carbon cycle in nature and the abundance and air sea exchange of carbon dioxide. In 1968, he was appointed professor of oceanography.
Keeling was a world leader in research on the carbon cycle and the increase of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere, known as the greenhouse effect, which may lead to changes in the global climate. He was the first to confirm the accumulation of atmospheric CO₂ by very precise measurements that produced a data set now known widely as the Keeling Curve. Prior to these investigations, it was commonly held that the oceans would readily absorb any excess CO₂ from the atmosphere produced by the burning of fossil fuels and other industrial activities. He also constructed a model of the carbon cycle into which future man-made CO₂ can be introduced to predict concentration levels in the air and water well into the next century.  

Here are a few updated graphs of the Keeling Curve. The first graph is our record of CO2 levels from 800,000 years ago up until now. We know this from ancient air bubbles in ice core samples from the arctic. The second graph is of CO2 levels since 1700. 

For my introductory post on the affects of climate change, I would like to focus on simple and straightforward science that has been around for quite sometime, and why we, humans, need to especially be literate on these matters in the 21st century. The Obama Administration and other government agencies, along with 98% of climate scientists have publicly stated that climate change is one of the most important, if not the most important challenge we face in modern times. This is because of the devastating affects it has on us and our civilization. The International Panel on Climate Science (IPCC) in their fourth assessment report, defines climate change as this: "Climate change in IPCC usage to a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g. using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. It refers to any change in climate over time, weather due to natural variability or as a result of human activity. This usage differs form that in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where climate change refers to a change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods." The New Oxford American Dictionary defines climate change as such: long-term, significant change in the climate of an area or of the earth, usually seen as resulting from human activity. This brings me to my first simple lesson about climate change.

I can't count the number of times my father as thought he has totally and utterly debunked the theory of climate change simply because of spontaneous cold bursts in the early fall, winter, or spring. And he follows his knockdown argument with a "so much for global warming", as he chuckles. It's really quite frustrating to me that a lot of Americans think this way. This is why it's important to educate ourselves with scientific facts and perhaps doing some observing and experimentation ourselves, because there is a simple solution to this ignorance, and that solution is the difference between climate and weather. I thought Neil degrasse Tyson did a wonderful job at explaining the difference of the two terms on last Sunday's episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: "For the record: Weather is how the atmosphere behaves day to day, which is a highly chaotic system and impossible to predict beyond a few days because there are so many variables that can influence weather patterns. Climate is the long-term average of weather patterns tracked over many years, and far more stable." And he concludes with another simple analogy: Tyson compares climate to the straight path his footprints make on the beach; weather is the dog walking alongside him on a leash, wandering to and fro but always within the constraints of the leash. When it comes to climate change, "Keep your eye on the man, not the dog," he advises.

It's that simple. We can't arbitrarily and anecdotally assign reasons for a matter as serious as this, because that would be to create an illusion that misses the point entirely. Our future depends on what we do about our impact on the ecosystem. And something as uncomplicated as knowing the difference between climate and weather can give us this understanding and clarity.  

In my next blog I will focus on Charles David Keeling's Discoveries, the Greenhouse Effect, the distinctions between our emissions of Co2 into the atmosphere and natures emissions of Co2, and the impact weather and climate are having on the ecosystem as a result of our emissions.