The Mauna Loa carbon dioxide (CO2) record, also known as the Keeling Curve, is the world’s longest unbroken record of carbon dioxide concentrations and most people have even never heard of it. The jagged upward slope illustrates rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the Earth’s atmosphere. The graph is an icon in atmospheric science and the curve highlights a disturbing and potent symbol of our times, because it reflects our relentless burning of fossil fuels and its impact to the planet.
The upward trend of the graph has been monitored since the 1950s, when Scripps geochemist Charles Keeling started his measurements at the summit of Mauna Loa, high above the island of Hawaii, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
In a fascinating twist on illustrating the danger of CO2 to our biosphere, University of University of Washington scientists have made it possible to listen to the planet’s CO2 change over the past 58 years. The haunting video below was created by Judy Twedt, a UW doctoral student in atmospheric sciences, and Dargan Frierson, a UW associate professor of atmospheric sciences.
The last time CO2 was this high was 650,000 years ago.The University of Washington reports on the recording:
American scientist Charles David Keeling was one of the first to notice that burning of fossil fuels was causing carbon dioxide to build up in the atmosphere. When Keeling began his project in 1958 the global carbon dioxide level was about 337 parts per million, already up from the preindustrial levels of about 280 parts per million. The most remote parts of the planet crossed the 400 parts per million threshold this year, while world leaders pledge to try to do something to slow the quickening rise of the heat-trapping gas.
“The atmosphere seems so big, it seems impossible that we’re changing it, but we are,” Frierson said.
Frierson composed the rest of the soundtrack on GarageBand using drum machines and ’80s and ’90s synthesizer sounds he collected for EarthGamesUW, a project to promote awareness of environmental science through video games.
The slightly jarring soundtrack is a new way to experience the rise in global carbon dioxide. Levels go up and down slightly each year because the Northern Hemisphere has more vegetation than the Southern Hemisphere, and plants take in carbon dioxide during the summer and then release it again in the winter. Accompanying that oscillation is a gradual, constant upward trend.
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