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NNadir

(33,368 posts)
Sun Jan 2, 2022, 03:00 PM Jan 2022

Roundup of the Weekly Readings at the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Observatory in 2021.

For a number of years, I have been downloading data on carbon dioxide concentrations in the planetary atmosphere from the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Observatory's Data Pages into a spreadsheet where I use the data to make calculations and use sorting functions to make comparisons.

In the last week of 2021, the week beginning 12/26/21, the weekly (average) reading at the observatory was 417.46 ppm, compared to 415.32 ppm in the same period in 2020, 2.14 ppm higher, and 393.42 than the same period in 2011, 25.03 ppm higher than in 2011.

The average reading in 2021 was 416.43 ppm; the high was 420.01 ppm recorded at the end of April, the week beginning April 25, the lowest 413.09 was recorded in the week beginning September 12, 2001.

The average reading in 2020 was 414.03 ppm; in 2019, 411.57; in 2018, 408.56; in 2017, 407.01; in 2016, 404.24.

In ten year week to week comparisons, the 25.03 ppm increase seen this year was the 21st highest out of 1938 data points in my spreadsheet. Two weeks this year were the first in history to see values that were higher than 26.00 ppm compared to the corresponding weekly figure 10 years previous, 26.53 ppm, and 26.28 ppm. Of the top 50 highest 10 year week to week increases, 27 occurred in 2021; all of the top 50 have occurred since 2019.

In the 20th century, going back to 1959, a period of 40 years, the average annual increases in the concentrations of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide in the planetary atmosphere topped 2.00 ppm 5 times. In the 21st century, a period of 20 years this value topped 2.00 ppm 14 times.

I've been writing at DU for 19 years. For much of that time I was hearing emphatic statements that so called "renewable energy" would save the day. Around the world this idea has been very popular, and even up to today, with the data clearly laid out, remains so.

When I started writing here in late November of 2002, the concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide in the planetary atmosphere was 372.68 ppm as recorded at the Mauna Loa CO2 observatory. In the spreadsheet I keep of Mauna Loa Observatory data, the 52 week running average of increases over ten year periods during the week I joined DU was 18.00 ppm/10 years = 1.80 ppm/year. As of last weekly data point (week beginning 12/26/2021) the same average was 24.58 ppm/10 years = 2.46 ppm/year.

Recently I updated the expenditure on so called "renewable energy," as reported going back to 2004.

Source: UNEP/Bloomberg: Global Trends in Renewable Energy.

I manually entered the figures in the bar graph in figure 8 to see how much money we've thrown at this destructive affectation since 2004 (up to 2019): It works out to 3.2633 trillion dollars, more than President Biden has wisely recommended for the improvement of all infrastructure in the entire United States. The fourth decimal after the decimal point represents 100s of millions of dollars.

The results of this expenditure are written the planetary atmosphere. People actually died this summer from extreme heat in British Columbia. All over the planet major intractable fires are breaking out. Extreme weather events are no longer extreme; they're common.

It's going to get worse. This week Germany shut half of its remaining 6 nuclear plants, despite pleas from people all over the world who care about climate change. This winter, amongst energy shortages in Europe driving up the prices of dangerous natural gas, Germany will be burning coal. 2022 is expected establish a record for burned coal worldwide.

There is a dearth of clear thinking on this planet, although I will remark that all over the world, many countries are looking to establish or expand nuclear energy capacity. Not everyone is involved in the German scheme to do less than nothing.

Have a happy New Year.

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Roundup of the Weekly Readings at the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Observatory in 2021. (Original Post) NNadir Jan 2022 OP
You are starting to win me over re: nuclear energy Mickju Jan 2022 #1
The ability to change one's mind is precious. NNadir Jan 2022 #2

NNadir

(33,368 posts)
2. The ability to change one's mind is precious.
Mon Jan 3, 2022, 02:24 PM
Jan 2022

One should never lose it at any age. One keeps the best of youth for however long one can keep it.

I changed my mind about nuclear energy a long time ago, after the Chernobyl event demonstrated experimentally the worst case, conflicting with my sloppy embrace of antinuke rhetoric. When I heard about Chernobyl I at minimum expected a huge death toll in Kiev.

Since this didn't happen, I questioned what I really knew about the case. As I researched the details I was kind of shocked by my own credulousness.

I have changed my mind about certain nuclear technologies, particularly the Thorium flibe MSR, but I have never deviated from my opinion since that opposition to nuclear energy is deadly in the extreme.

The population of Kiev is about 2.9 million. We lose more than two Kievs a year to air pollution without a single whimper from the antinuke set who want to prattle on and on and on about Chernobyl and Fukushima. I recently even heard one whining about Three Mile Island.

One doesn't want to believe this but it actually happens, still, with the catastrophe of climate change before us.

I find this whining insane in the context of climate change, which is easily the worst energy disaster of all time resulting from the normal use of dangerous fossil fuels.

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