Posts
Stop
The War to Silence Science, End Egregious Cuts To Greenhouse Gas
Monitoring Now
3
February, 2014
Here
we stand at the cusp. At the brink. At the precipice of the crisis
that will certainly define this century. An extraordinarily dangerous
human alteration of the climate that, at its end, could be far more
destructive and deadly than any war. A growing and emerging
monstrosity created by us. One which, should we continue to feed it,
would plunge us into the heart of one of the blackest climatological
eras ever experienced on this planet.
We
know there is danger. And we have known it for some time due to the
clarity and accuracy of our vision. A vision provided to us by a
scientific understanding of our world that is the pinnacle of human
progress. For if there is one thing that we should be proud of, that
we could all share in as a great victory for our race, it would be
the knowledge and understanding that we have gained in our long and
tempestuous rise from darkness.
(Upper graph: Global CO2 concentrations since 1700. Lower graph: Global temperatures since 1880 as measured at the world’s meteorological stations. Image sources: The Keeling Curve and NASA GISS.)
And
yet now, at the brink of crisis, we are at risk of having the new
senses provided to us by science, senses we depend upon so much for
that knowledge, that vision we need most desperately, begin to fade,
to dim, to wink out. For the monitors we use to track the crisis are
steadily being de-funded and are at risk of going dark.
Just
this past Christmas Eve, Dr. Ralph Keeling, son of the renowned Dr.
Charles David Keeling, made a public appeal for increased funding of
the critical Mauna Loa Observatory’s CO2 Monitor. The funds, you
see, after more than 40 years of cuts to critical scientific
research, research often labeled by political opponents to be
‘wasteful government spending,’ were at risk of short-fall. So
Dr. Keeling, a scientist in the crucial and much-needed field of
atmospheric monitoring, was forced, by the most greedy and heartless
among us, who only see the gift beyond price that is human science as
a tax burden equivalent to ‘wasteful government spending,’ to pan
handle for the continued funding of his, all-too-necessary and
growing ever more important with each passing day, mission.
Dr
Keeling’s appeal was the very modicum of dignity and candor. And it
contained hardly a jot of the outrage which he, and the rest of us,
should justifiably feel. Instead, he simply and candidly reminded us
of the importance of his ongoing mission:
Friends,
I
am writing as the director of the Scripps CO2 and O2 programs, which
keep track of how these vital gases are changing in the atmosphere
over time. The CO2 measurements include the iconic Mauna Loa
record, now commonly known as the “Keeling Curve”, which was
started by my father in the late 1950s.
The
O2 measurements, carried out on samples from Mauna Loa and many other
stations, also provide critical information about how the planet is
changing. The measurements show that the world’s O2 supply is
slowly decreasing, and have helped prove that the CO2 increase is
caused by fossil fuel burning, but offset by natural sinks of CO2 in
the land and oceans.
The
need to continue these measurements has not diminished. The planet is
undergoing dramatic changes, unprecedented for millions of years.
This past year, our group reported that CO2 topped 400 parts per
million at Mauna Loa for the first time…
The
Scripps CO2 and O2 measurements now face severe funding challenges.
The situation is most urgent for the O2 measurements. These
measurements have been supported for decades through proposals
submitted every few years to the federal agencies. The value of
these measurements is not questioned, but federal funding for these
programs has never been so tenuous. This is the basis for this
unusual to the public at large…
I
have struggled throughout my career to cope with [funding
challenges], and I will continue the struggle. The quest for
continued federal support will not end.
For
now, I ask for your support so that we can keep up these activities
and sustain our watch on the planet in this time of unprecedented
global change.
Sincerely,
Ralph
F. Keeling
(I’ve
abbreviated Dr. Keeling’s appeal for this post. That said, I fully
urge you to read the entire appeal at his blog The
Keeling Curve,
to help spread word of his appeal far and wide, and to donate
generously.)
Now,
as Dr. Keeling knows all too well, 400 ppm CO2 is a big deal. If the
world were to remain at this level for an extended period, global
temperatures would eventually stabilize between 2-3 degrees hotter
than the 20th Century Average. Analysis of the dramatic changes,
including a 15-75 foot sea level rise, massive expansion of deserts,
a reduced productivity of lands and oceans, and dangerous changes to
the world’s weather as it undergoes this temperature transition
would put most if not all human civilizations at risk of collapse.
Failure to heed this warning and rapidly stabilize and then reduce
CO2 levels would risk these and far worse consequences. Yet despite
this danger, we are rapidly heading on toward 450, 550, 650 ppm CO2
or more.
NASA
has rightly labeled atmospheric CO2 concentration ‘the global
thermostat’
and if you want to get a good idea of where the temperature is
heading, you need to keep an eye on the thermostat needle. Dr.
Keeling’s research gives us that needle. And without the measure
his research provides, we are flying blindly into a world of
worsening and ever more dangerous weather.
Methane
Monitoring Cut as Well
Sadly,
Dr. Keeling’s essential monitoring is not the only measure at risk
of funding cuts. According to a recent report in Live
Science,
monitoring of another essential greenhouse gas, methane, has fallen
by 25% due to ongoing cuts and is now at serious risk of collapsing.
Ed Dlugokencky, an atmospheric chemist with NOAA’s Earth Sciences
Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado noted:
“We’ve
had about a 25 percent decrease in the number of air samples measured
from the global cooperative network. If we want to understand what is
happening [with methane], we’re going in the wrong direction to do
that.”
While
CO2 is the primary driver of current warming, methane is,
increasingly, an indicator of one of the worst amplifying feedbacks
due to human caused change. Massive volumes of methane lay stored in
tundra and on the sea bed. Should these stores, which are sensitive
to heating, be released into the atmosphere, they could add
substantial additional warming on top of the warming already set in
play by CO2 increases.
Recent
reports and studies have found evidence of an increasing Arctic
emission of methane, one that has possibly exceeded 90 megatons
annually. Though not yet catastrophic, this increasing emission is a
serious concern and we would be very unwise to stop taking measures
of this very volatile and potentially dangerous atmospheric gas.
As
is the case with Dr. Keeling, cuts in funding to scientific
monitoring of these gases are as egregious as they are short sighted.
The scientists and the research efforts they provide go to benefit us
all. They work diligently to serve our interest and to give us the
best information along with the means to make sound decisions, should
we choose to. They are not wealthy and could have probably earned far
more using their considerable intellects to game the stock market,
for example, or to aid CEOs in determining how best to off shore US
jobs to cheap, easily exploitable foreign labor.
There
is no tax cut for the top 1 percent, no foreign oil war, no subsidy
to the fossil fuel industry that is more important than funding this
scientific effort and these selfless public servants who work so
diligently on our behalf. So we should do everything necessary —
increase taxes on the wealthy, stop fighting wasteful wars, and stop
subsidizing dirty and dangerous industries — in order to provide
the support needed to continue this vital service to humankind.
And
as for those dark political and social forces that, as
they did in Canada with the dismemberment, looting, and dissolution
of scientific libraries,
seek to suppress the accumulation of knowledge about how our world
operates and, yes, responds to the harm we’ve inflicted upon it —
they should be banished back to the dark ages from which they arose.
They have no place here. Not at this time of clear and present
danger. They are traitors to human progress, to our civilizations
and, ultimately, to the vitality of life on this world. And they
should be swept aside lest, one by one, we all, and not just the
scientists, be silenced.
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