Over the next 60 years, the observatory’s data would reveal something far more sinister afoot in the atmosphere: a rapid increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, caused by the burning of fossil fuels. The seasonal uptake and release of carbon dioxide would turn out to be just one of the stunning phenomena illustrated by the measurements at Mauna Loa. “We were witnessing for the first time,” he wrote in his autobiography, “nature’s withdrawing CO2 from the air for plant growth during the summer and returning it each succeeding winter.” They had, in essence, captured a picture of the northern hemisphere drawing and releasing breath-exhaling carbon dioxide as forests turned bare for the winter, and inhaling as the leaves returned each summer. The pattern repeated itself, almost exactly, during the second year of measurements. Then, in the summer months, the opposite happened, with carbon dioxide concentrations dropping. In November, when Keeling first made the winding trek up the volcano, the measurements showed the concentration of carbon dioxide increasing-slowly, but steadily. In March of 1958, the first continuous measurements of carbon dioxide began at the observatory months later, in November, Keeling visited the site for the first time.Įven just months into the program, the monitoring at Mauna Loa was already producing revolutionary results. But Keeling and Wexler maintained a professional relationship, allowing both Scripps and the federal government to have a hand in the measurement program being set up in Mauna Loa-a public and private partnership that would continue for decades. Keeling got his wish, even if Wexler didn’t necessarily get his: Instead of joining the Weather Bureau, Keeling took a position at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, passing over a windowless office at the Naval Observatory for the ocean breeze of San Diego. What the world needed, Keeling argued, was a few remote sites set up around the world, continuously measuring fluctuations in the amount of carbon dioxide that was entering, or leaving, the atmosphere. to meet with Wexler and, in the span of a few hours, had convinced the director to completely overhaul the Weather Bureau’s carbon measurement program. A few years earlier, Keeling had flown to Washington, D.C. Weather Bureau’s Division of Meteorological Research. Keeling had ended up in Hawaii at the behest of Harry Wexler, the director of the U.S. Now, he came to the top of the world’s largest volcano to check in on a new project that he hoped would change the way that the scientific community measured atmospheric carbon dioxide. Keeling, a 30-year old scientist from California, had initially made a name for himself in the science community by devising a unique method of sampling of carbon dioxide, which had revealed some intriguing patterns-namely, that the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide was relatively uniform throughout the entire northern hemisphere, averaging about 310 parts per million. At 11,135 feet above sea level, he stopped at a small, gray concrete building-the only sign of human life among miles and miles of lava rock, aside from an outhouse some 50 yards from the building. About 60 years ago, David Keeling began to wind his way up the side of Mauna Loa.
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