Wendy Science: Carbon Dioxide Data Earns a Place in History [Transcript]

The American Chemical Society added the Keeling Curve to its list of National Historic Chemical Landmarks, recognizing the graph's important contribution to chemistry that transforms and improves society

The 50-year-old Keeling Curve, showing rising atmospheric CO2 levels over time, was declared a National Historic Chemical Landmark. , the curve’s upward climb continues.

This is 60-Second Science. I’m Jen Christiansen. Got a minute?

The American Chemical Society honored the Keeling Curve—a graph that displays atmospheric carbon dioxide levels since 1958—as a at a dedication event at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in June, 2015.

In March of 1958 geochemist Charles David Keeling set up infrared gas analyzers in Hawaii, Antarctica and California to measure carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

His initial findings, published in 1960, revealed a seasonal pattern, with low levels in October rising to high levels in May. This mirrors Northern Hemisphere plant-growth cycles. Increased levels of photosynthesis—and plant carbon dioxide capture—in the summer, are followed by lower levels of photosynthesis and atmospheric carbon dioxide accumulation in the winter.

With data continuously collected at the U.S. Weather Observatory in Mauna Loa, Hawaii, Keeling was able to confirm a longer-term trend he noticed in the early 1960s Carbon dioxide levels—then and now—continue an uphill climb, resulting in a seasonal oscillating pattern superimposed on a steadily rising curve. By May of 2013, levels reached 400 parts per million for the first time in at least 800,000 years. And we seem to be marching steadily towards 450 ppm, a threshold that some suggest will kick us 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, thanks to the greenhouse effect.

Thanks for the minute! For ’s 60-Second Science, I’m Jen Christiansen.

—Jen Christiansen, Benjamin Meyers, Eliene Augenbraun