The fact stated in the title of this diary should surprise no one, although it must be said that carbon dioxide levels do fluctuate annually. The level of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide was as of April of this year 396.18 ppm.
The data to support this diary comes from the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory at Mauna Loa Hawaii. The chief data that I will analyze will be the monthly data which is recorded on a text file web page: Mauna Loa Monthly Mean CO2 Data
I have imported this text data into the Microsoft Excel Program, and played with it to share some interesting trends, particularly those involving the year to year rates of increase of dangerous fossil fuel waste levels recorded at the observatory.
The April to April increase in dangerous fossil fuel waste levels in the planetary atmosphere from 2011 to 2012 is the second highest ever recorded, 2.90 ppm in a single year. The record April to April increase in dangerous fossil fuel waste levels in the planetary atmosphere was between 2009 and 2010, when the increase was 3.00 ppm in a single year.
The average April to April increase in dangerous fossil fuel waste levels in the planetary atmosphere from 1959 to the present is 1.49 ppm per year. April has the highest month to month average increase in dangerous fossil fuel waste levels in the planetary atmosphere. The average increase for all months year to year from 1959 to the present year has been 1.45 in dangerous fossil fuel waste levels in the planetary atmosphere. In the past 24 months only three months have been below this average over little more than half a century, March of 2011, April of 2011, and May of 2011.
This month recorded the 14th highest year to year increase in dangerous fossil fuel waste levels in the planetary atmosphere of all time recorded at the Mauna Loa observatory. That places it in the 98th percentile for monthly readings.
It may or may not be a coincidence, but these were precisely the months in which recovery from the 9.0 earthquake and 15 meter tsunami that struck Japan took place. Much infrastructure was destroyed, including most famously, several nuclear reactors, although unremarked in public conciousness, roads, buildings, dams, harbors, refineries and other infrastructure was also destroyed..
Twenty thousand people, roughly died in this event, and in spite of what you've heard, not one of them has yet to die from the effects of radiation sickness.
This month, by the way, Japan shut down all of its nuclear reactors to make sure that they are "safe."
Oddly enough, they didn't all decide to live in tents this month until they could figure out of buildings are "safe," even though lots of people died in buildings.
The first time in the last half a century that the year to year monthly increase in dangerous fossil fuel waste levels in the planetary atmosphere exceeded 3.00 ppm - which it has done 8 times since - was in June of 1997 to June of 1998, when it rose by. In fact in 1998 there were six months in that year where the year to year (1997-1998) monthly increases equaled or exceeded 3.00 ppm.
The anti-nuke gas bag Joe Romm was running the climate office in 1998 by the way, but apparently his wonderful efforts to build wind and solar plants all around the world and stop climate change dead in its tracks stopped that stuff dead in its tracks, well, sort of.
The other year to year monthly increase exceeded 3.00 ppm was between July of 2004 and July of 2005, when it jumped by 3.17 ppm, possibly because of noxious gases released by that famous gas bag Dick Cheney, or maybe it was something else.
Who am I to say?
By the way, since the gas bag Joe Romm ran the climate office in 1998 the average year to year monthly increase, including 1998 has been 1.99 ppm, higher, obviously than the 50 year average.
Happily though, global temperatures are increasing, and the up side of all that is that we need to burn less dangerous natural gas and less dangerous oil to heat our swell "green" homes.
Aren't we lucky?
Nevertheless, the April figures from April 2011 to April 2012 don't look all that good to me. It may be premature to declare "victory."
Pay no attention to me.
Don't worry. Be happy.
Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, and try not to think too much about any thing too memorable.