Keeling Curve - C02 Emissions 1958-2021
The Art
The Science
What’s Alarming
Although carbon dioxide (CO2) occurs naturally in our atmosphere, levels have increased dramatically in the post-industrial era, from 227 parts per million (ppm) in 1750 to a high of 420 ppm in May 2021 recorded by NOAA”s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory.
Started in 1958 by C. David Keeling of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and known as the “Keeling Curve”, the measurements of carbon dioxide data at Mauna Loa Observatory are the longest record of direct measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere. Keeling was the first to observe that not only does CO2 rise and fall with seasons, but that, despite seasonal fluctuations, overall levels were rising every year. In 1974 NOAA began its own measurements and the two institutions have run parallel observations ever since.
