The daily carbon dioxide measurement taken at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii continues above 400 parts per million (ppm). The count for July 1, 2015, was 402.17 ppm. The count one year ago that date was 400.80 ppm.
The monthly average for May 2015 was 403.70 ppm.
The measurement for 2014 averaged 401.78.
The measurement for 2013 averaged 396.48.
The number slowly climbs. Scientists talk of a tipping point, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that would mean we have lost the chance to stop or mitigate the damage to come. How high can we go before we tip? No one knows.
You can learn more about this at http://co2now.org/Current-CO2/CO2-Now/global-co2-board.html
Scientists predict that as Minnesota's climate warms many of our nesting birds, particularly those of our boreal forests, like this Cape May Warbler, will be driven north, out of the state, no longer nesting here. The list of bird species for which that will happen is more than two dozen long.
"Chasing Ice," the movie
It's hard to visualize what's going to happen if we continue to warm the earth. For some idea of that, go to YouTube and watch the film entitled "Chasing Ice." Here you see what is happening in Greenland — long pieces of glacier 400 feet thick breaking off and crashing into the ocean. It looks like a snow avalanche until the ice rolls in the water and the marine blue of the chunk comes into view. There are glaciers there that dump 140 feet of themselves into the ocean every day. And all of that ice is going to melt.
