{"id":298058,"date":"2025-07-14T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=298058"},"modified":"2025-07-08T08:04:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T07:04:51","slug":"hawaiis-mauna-loa-observatory-captured-the-reality-of-climate-change-the-us-plans-to-shut-it-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/07\/hawaiis-mauna-loa-observatory-captured-the-reality-of-climate-change-the-us-plans-to-shut-it-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawaii\u2019s Mauna Loa Observatory Captured the Reality of Climate Change–The US Plans to Shut It Down"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii – Bloomberg News<\/p><\/div>\n

3 Jul 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0The greenhouse effect was discovered more than 150 years ago and the first scientific paper linking carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere with climate change was published in 1896<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t until the 1950s that scientists could definitively detect the effect of human activities on the Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

In 1956, United States scientist Charles Keeling chose Hawaii\u2019s Mauna Loa volcano for the site of a new atmospheric measuring station. It was ideal, located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and at high altitude away from the confounding influence of population centres.<\/p>\n

Data collected by Mauna Loa from 1958 onward let us clearly see the evidence of climate change for the first time. The station samples the air and measures global CO\u2082 levels. Charles Keeling and his successors used this data to produce the famous Keeling curve<\/a> \u2013 a graph showing carbon dioxide levels increasing year after year.<\/p>\n

But this precious record is in peril. US President Donald Trump has decided<\/a> to defund the observatory<\/a> recording the data, as well as the widespread US greenhouse gas monitoring network and other climate measuring sites.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t solve the existential problem of climate change if we can\u2019t track the changes. Losing Mauna Loa would be a huge loss to climate science. If it shuts, other observatories such as Australia\u2019s Kennaook\/Cape Grim<\/a> will become even more vital.<\/p>\n

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The Keeling Curve tracking steadily rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere came from data gathered at Mauna Loa.<\/span> Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego<\/a>, CC BY-NC-ND<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What did Mauna Loa show us?<\/h2>\n

The first year of measurements at Mauna Loa revealed something incredible. For the first time, the clear annual cycle in atmospheric CO\u2082 was visible. As plants grow in summer, they absorb CO\u2082 and draw it out of the atmosphere. As they die and decay in winter, the CO\u2082 returns to the atmosphere. It\u2019s like Earth is breathing.<\/p>\n

Most land on Earth is in the Northern Hemisphere, which means this cycle is largely influenced by the northern summer and winter.<\/p>\n

The annual cycle of carbon dioxide is largely due to plant growth and decay in the northern hemisphere:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n