The Carbon Conundrum
Why we must act:
Meet the 1000 lb gorilla: Boulder began measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide long before we could detect the impact of this greenhouse gas on climate.
For more than 50 years, once every week a very physically fit and dedicated group of Boulder researchers have traveled up Niwot Ridge to take a sample of air obtained at about 11,000 ft. This air was carried down the mountain in a special flask and measured at the Boulder NOAA laboratory. The carbon dioxide concentrations from these air samples are shown in the figure below. Two patterns are very evident. First, there is an annual cycle, where the planet ‘breathes in’ carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide capture by plants) and then ‘exhales’ carbon dioxide, which is evident during the non-growing season (respiration by plants, animals, and microbes releases more carbon dioxide than plants remove). The net drawdown and net release of this gas produces the annual wiggle in the measurements. Additional amounts of carbon dioxide are added to this annual pattern from the burning of fossil fuels. The very obvious increase of this greenhouse gas over time largely explains our climate change problem. This gas (and a few other gases that also trap heat) must be reduced if we’re going to stabilize our climate. While the graph below is very much a Boulder product and Boulder trend, it also is a trend that is consistent across the globe. The challenge going forward is to first stabilize and then reverse this increase over pre-industrial values.
This very obvious trend and planet-wide finding is the ultimate thermometer we need to use to judge our progress in controlling energy factors that drive our weather systems. Other climate trends measured at Niwot Ridge (a Forest Service site) and the adjacent Green Lakes Valley (owned by the City of Boulder) by CU researchers have provided local details regarding the extent to which the climate and our high elevation areas are changing. As is often the case, trends sometimes show local patterns that do not match averages, but usually we can interpret the mechanisms why these trends are context-specific.
Initially placed on this site in the 1950s (and painted orange at that time!), this shed is now a shrine to the commitment of NOAA, INSTAAR, and CU to measure human impacts on climate.
While a huge and ongoing effort has been made to obtain these important data, the effort now must be to find the mechanisms to stop the increase and reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions.
There are numerous studies documenting the slow warming that is occurring in the Colorado Front Range. We’re fairly resilient to these changes, as the North American prairies survived multiple extended heating and drought intervals to get this far. However, changes are underway and many of these are undesirable. Further, this heating is now causing what we consider to be ‘extreme events’ with catastrophic fires being the primary risk, but catastrophic rainfall events (alone or in conjunction with previous fires) are now also transforming landscapes.
We can do this…and we can let nature do some of it…we just have to facilitate this process!
