2019 Ended at the Mauna Loa CO2 observatory reporting a 3.54 ppm increase over the last 2018 reading

The Mauna Loa carbon dioxide observatory which measures the concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste in the atmosphere daily, keeps a record of yearly increases and posts them on its website, both graphically and in a text menu on the right of the page where the data is recorded. The "official" yearly increase for a year generally is reported in February of the following year.

Annual Mean Growth Rate for Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

Here, for convenience, is the graphic that can be accessed on that page:



If you have good eye sight, you can make out that the first data point to reach the 3.00 ppm mark was in the decade just ended: It was recorded in 2016.

The designation of the end of the calendar year as marking the "official" increase is somewhat artificial; the concentration of carbon dioxide is sinusoidal each year, a sine wave's zero axis being more or less super imposed on a steadily rising axis that varies slightly from linear, as this graphic, also from the Mauna Loa website shows:



The actual maxima take place in late spring. In 2019, this maxima was reached during the week beginning May 12, 2019 when the concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide was 415.39 ppm.

Still the end of the calendar year has some importance to "official readings" and it's useful to note what is happening at the end of the calendar year.

Here, again from the website is the "official data" for the week beginning December 29, 2019:

[link:Up-to-date weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa|Up-to-date weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa]

Somewhat obsessively I keep a spreadsheet of the weekly data, which I use to do calculations to record the dying of our atmosphere, a triumph of fear, dogma and ignorance that did not have to be, but nonetheless is. I note, with sadness and regret, that we on the left are not free of such fear ignorance and dogma, although I wish we were. We cannot, with justice, attribute this outcome to Ronald Reagan, George Bush the first and second, and Donald Trump. We bear responsibility, no matter how much we pat ourselves on the back for our insane, and frankly, delusional worship of so called "renewable energy."

It is obvious that all the money thrown at so called "renewable energy" - the figures are in the trillions of dollars - did not work, are not working. I, for one, am absolutely and irrevocably certain that even more money, tens of trillions of dollars, will not work.

The reason is physics. The laws of physics are not determined by popular opinion, delusional or otherwise. They are independent of politics, and politicians ignore them at the peril of all humanity.

As of this writing, there have been 2,290 such weekly readings recorded at Mauna Loa, going back to 1975. If the increase recorded for the week of December 29, 2019 compared to the last reading of 2018, 3.54 ppm, had occurred before 2016, it would have easily been in the top 50 such readings. However 2016 recorded 20 of the top 50 readings as of this date. 2017 produced one such reading in the top 50, 2018, also one, five were recorded in 2019. In 2019, the ten year figures suggest that the current rate of carbon dioxide increases is between 2.4 - 2.5 ppm/year, the highest such rate recorded for any decade at Mauna Loa, going back to 1959. As it is, the 3.54 measurement for the week beginning December 29, 2019 is "only" the 70th highest out of 2,290 readings - tied with three other weeks - ever recorded.

The Mauna Loa observatory will not report 2019 as coming in at 3.54 ppm higher than 2018, thus shattering all previous records. Because of observational "noise" in the readings, the final "official" number is an average for the last weeks of the year averaged with the first weeks of the next year. The average for the last four weeks of these readings is 2.74 ppm higher than the same weeks of the previous year. Were this average to hold through the first several weeks of 2020, 2019 would "only" be the 4th worst observed in more than 60 years of collected data.

If the fact that this reading is 24.42 ppm higher than it was ten years ago bothers you, don't worry, be happy. You can read all about how wonderful things will be "by 2050" or "by 2100." Wind. Solar. Elon Musk. Tesla Car. And all that.

Don't worry. Be happy. Head on over to the E&E forum here and read all the joy expressed there for the German nuclear phase out.

I personally consider such talk to be abysmally ignorant, of course, and an obvious statement that the people expressing such points are completely disinterested in the environmental issue of climate change as compared to their fear and ignorance connected with nuclear energy, but that's not my forum. I'm a scientist, not a cheerleader for the steel, aluminum, lanthanide and copper mining industries, nor the gas industry, industries on which so called "renewable energy" depends for its tortured (and hopefully short) existence.

Nuclear energy was, is, and always will be the only tool available to humanity capable of addressing climate change.

My impression is that I've been hearing all about how rapidly bird and bat grinding wind turbines are being installed, mostly written by simpleton anti-nukes, since I began writing here in 2002, when the reading on April 21, 2002 was 375.42 ppm.

All this jawboning about the wonderful growth of so called "renewable energy" has had no effect on climate change, is having no effect on climate change, and won't have any effect on climate change, but it's not climate change that counts: It's all that wonderful marketing showing pictures giant sleek wind turbines on steel posts that counts.

The reality - and I regret reference to reality in these times of triumph of the unreal - of what is happening is this:

In this century, world energy demand grew by 179.15 exajoules to 599.34 exajoules.

In this century, world gas demand grew by 50.33 exajoules to 137.03 exajoules.

In this century, the use of petroleum grew by 34.79 exajoules to 188.45 exajoules.

In this century, the use of coal grew by 63.22 exajoules to 159.98 exajoules.

In this century, the solar, wind, geothermal, and tidal energy on which people so cheerfully have bet the entire planetary atmosphere, stealing the future from all future generations, grew by 9.76 exajoules to 12.27 exajoules.

12.27 exajoules is slightly over 2% of the world energy demand.

Source: 2019 Edition of the World Energy Outlook Table 1.1 Page 38] (I have converted MTOE in the original table to the SI unit exajoules in this text.)

Don't worry; be happy. It's not your problem. It's the problem of every living thing that comes after us, including but not limited to human beings. We obviously couldn't care less.

Have a pleasant work week.