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NNadir

(33,368 posts)
Sun May 24, 2020, 11:11 AM May 2020

New Weekly CO2 Concentration Record Set at the Mauna Loa Observatory 416.97 ppm.

Portions of the text of this post are identical to the text I wrote in earlier posts I made over the last few weeks, with the numbers updated. The most recent such post is this one: New Weekly CO2 Concentration Record Set at the Mauna Loa Observatory 416.83 ppm. I feel it is in my rights to repeat myself much as the members of "renewables will save us" squad repeat themselves about how wonderful so called "renewable energy" is, even though it has a record over nearly half a century of over promising and not delivering, including the last 20 years, during which trillions of dollars have been "invested" in it.

The data near the annual peak in 2020 has been noisy.

As I've indicated many times before in this space, I somewhat obsessively keep a spreadsheet of the weekly data at the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Observatory, 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 had the naive wishful thinking notion that restrictions on automobile traffic with all of the worldwide lock downs would lead to a slowing of carbon dioxide accumulations. Indeed, it does seem something a little bit unusual is going on. Some weeks ago, I reported that the annual maximum, which usually occurs in May seemed to have arrived early:

We May Have Hit The Annual Maximum CO2 Observatory at Mauna Loa Unusually Early This Year.

That record was set on April 5, of this year, about a month ago, at 416.45 ppm, and was followed by two weeks of lower readings, 416.27 ppm and 415.88 ppm, for the weeks beginning April 12 and April 19. Had values continued to decrease, it would have meant that this would stand as the second time, going back to 1975, that the peak was observed during the first week of April. Last week had a reading, 416.79, lower than the previous record set two weeks ago of 416.83. This week's reading, 416.97 ppm, is higher than both.


The data from the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Observatory:

Up-to-date weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa


Week beginning on May 17, 2020: 416.97 ppm
Weekly value from 1 year ago: 414.72 ppm
Weekly value from 10 years ago: 393.46 ppm
Last updated: May 24, 2020


The increase in carbon dioxide concentrations when compared to the same week in 2019 is 2.25 ppm. The week to week comparisons between 2020 and 2019 are averaging this year 2.54 ppm. This same average in 2019, as compared to 2018, was 2.90 ppm.

Let me say this: I am open to speculating that the Mauna Loa data does reflect the decline of automotive traffic owing to Covid-19. Over the last four weeks, the average weekly comparisons with the same week of 2019, is "only" 2.21. There is, however a far more depressing way to view this "only" 2.21 number. The Mauna Loa website posts data of this type, weekly year to year comparisons going back to May 25, 1975. Of the first 300 data points, 51 increases were greater than 2.00 ppm. Two were greater than 3.00 ppm. Of the latest 300 data points, 214 have been greater than 2.00 and 32 have been greater than 3.00 pm.

The 2.21 figure for the growth of carbon dioxide over a year earlier would have been upsetting in 1980; today it almost seems comforting.

Go figure.

In the week of January 1, 2000, the running 12 month average of comparisons of changes with respect to the same week ten years earlier, was 15.19 ppm higher than the figure ten years previous. In 2020, the same twelve month running average is 24.06 ppm over figures 10 years earlier.

If any of this troubles you, don't worry, be happy. Head on over to Daily Kos, where you can read all about how wonderful renewable energy is for 21 health care centers in Nigeria. The death toll in Nigeria among children under the age of 5 from diarrhea resulting from reduced breast feeding leading to reliance on Nigerian water supplies, is estimated to have been 22,371 in 2016. Ref: Diarrhoea deaths and disability-adjusted life years attributable to suboptimal breastfeeding practices in Nigeria: findings from the global burden of disease study 2016 (F Ogbo et al. International Breastfeeding Journal (2019) 14:4)


We've had trillions of dollars to spend on so called "renewable energy," the components of which will largely consist of electronic waste in 25 years - waste we may ship to Nigeria to "recycle," leading to more damage to Nigerian children similar to the damage electronic recycling has inflicted on Chinese children." We have not had trillions of dollars to provide basic sanitation to the two billion people who lack it.

The result of the trillions spent on so called "renewable energy" has been nil. It has not addressed climate change, is not addressing climate change and will not address climate change.

My impression that I've been hearing all about how rapidly renewable energy has been growing since I began writing here in 2002, when the reading on April 14, 2002 was 375.14 ppm should not disturb you, since it is better to think everything is fine rather than focus on reality.

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. World energy demand in 2018 was 599.34 exajoules. Unquestionably it will be higher in 2020, even with the Covid crisis.

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.)

Still we on the left cheer for so called "renewable energy." Apparently our respect for data isn't as high as we seem to think it is.

Don't worry. Be happy.

Electric car! Wind turbine! Solar cell! So and so on, ad nauseum...

Heckuva job people, heckuva job. Let's ask Jared to declare a success!

History will not forgive us, nor should it.

I hope you stay safe and well and will, despite this crisis, be able to enjoy the spring, while avoiding crowding into beaches with disease vectors, on this Memorial Day weekend.
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