How Are We Doing?
The Mauna Loa weather observatory has been collecting measurements of atmospheric CO₂ levels since 1958—longer than any other site. A nice portal to their data, updated daily, can be found at keelingcurve.ucsd.edu (click on the labels above the graph to see different time scales, particularly 1700-present and 800,000 years). More information about this data can be found at wikipedia.org/wiki/Keeling_Curve.
I don't think anyone really knows exactly what's going to happen in the future, but we have already surpassed, in a climbing direction, the CO₂ dips that accompanied ice ages in the past. At present CO₂ growth rates we will hit 1000 ppm in 300 years—a level that hasn't been seen on Earth for 100 million years, since the time of the dinosaurs. I think it's painfully clear that what we are doing to the Earth's atmosphere is going to result in vast environmental changes in the not-that-distant future. One species will compensate by adjusting the thermostats in the rooms they live in, but all the rest will dwindle to extinction when they can no longer adapt to the changes taking place outdoors. And as that happens, we will get a demonstration of just how interconnected and interdependent living things (including human beings) really are here on Earth.
As someone who used to think nothing of driving wherever I wanted to go, I have contributed my share to rising CO₂ levels. All I can think of to say to my sons is, "I'm sorry. I didn't know the consequences of what I was doing." But we do now...
I believe there is a part of us, deep down inside, that reacts to the long-term consequences of the things we do in life, the legacy of our actions. We can suppress this part of ourselves by staying busy, but it affects us nonetheless: affects how we really feel about ourselves. And I think that on our deathbed, we wind up realizing that this legacy—the onflowing, cascading consequences of what we have done in life—is about all that ever really mattered in our lives.
It is a challenge, within the relentless stampeding influence of modern society, to think about long-term consequences in a way that actually changes our behavior. But it can be done, with conscious awareness and effort. Remember the Keeling curve when you think of somewhere you want to drive/travel to. Remember the curve when you start planning your next vacation or looking for a new car. Remember the curve when you're sitting in your car with your motor idling or are about to pull in to a drive-thru lane. Remember the curve when you reach to adjust the thermostat instead of adjusting the clothing you're wearing; when you leave a light on or an appliance running. Your tiny influence, multiplied a million times over, can make a difference. Remember the curve, remember the curve...
Lots of talk these days about carbon footprints, carbon goals, CO₂ reduction. All that really matters, though, is—how are we doing? Click the picture above to see today's answer.
Remember the curve!
