Know Your Numbers

Know your numbers. For your health. For our health. Some info from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) : Last week for the first time since recording started in 1958 at the NOAA Mauna Loa, Hawaii research station, the daily mean concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million . It marks an important milestone because Mauna Loa, as the oldest continuous carbon dioxide (CO₂) measurement station in the world, is the primary global benchmark site for monitoring the increase of this potent heat-trapping gas. Before the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, global average CO2 was about 280 ppm. During the last 800,000 years, CO2 fluctuated between about 180 ppm during ice ages and 280 ppm during interglacial warm periods. Today’s rate of increase is more than 100 times faster than the increase that occurred when the last ice age ended.* Another number from last week: 70,000. The new Telsa Model S sedan has breakthrough technology for zero emissions and high performance and received the Consumer Reports near perfect review. Okay. But it costs $70,000. So, we know, the prices of all the electric vehicles need to come down. And they will. In the meantime, buy them if you can, drive less if you have a conventional hydro-carbon car, ride your bike and walk more. It will help all our numbers. *More details on the 400 ppm especially for those skeptical that human activity (e.g. emissions from vehicles and manufacturing, et.al.) is raising the CO2 rate or that CO2 rates are a cause for things warming up. Taken from the NOAA website: “Carbon dioxide pumped into the atmosphere by fossil fuel burning and other human activities is the most significant greenhouse gas (GHG) contributing to climate change. Its concentration has increased every year since scientists started making measurements on the slopes of the Mauna Loa volcano more than five decades ago. The rate of increase has accelerated since the measurements started, from about 0.7 ppm per year in the late 1950s to 2.1 ppm per year during the last 10 years. ‘That increase is not a surprise to scientists,’ said NOAA senior scientist Pieter Tans, with the Global Monitoring Division of NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. ‘The evidence is conclusive that the strong growth of global CO2 emissions from the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas is driving the acceleration.”’