In 1958, Roger Revelle and Charles David Keeling developed with funding the Mauna Loa research station for measuring CO2 in the atmosphere. Samples are collected every hour from 5 towers standing above the volcano. According to their website, “Air samples at Mauna Loa are collected continuously from air intakes at the top of four 7-m towers and one 27-m tower. Four air samples are collected each hour for the purpose of determining the CO2 concentration. The Mauna Loa record shows a 19.4% increase in the mean annual concentration, from 315.98 parts per million by volume (ppmv) of dry air in 1959 to 377.38 ppmv in 2004. The 1997-1998 increase in the annual growth rate of 2.87 ppmv represets the largest single yearly jump since the Mauna Loa record began in 1958.

The graph below shows the relationship between CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere and temperature since 400,000 years ago as measured from samples from the Vostok ice core. Notice that the temperature and CO2 concentrations show a direct relationship. Also notice that the highest range of CO2 is NOT above 300 ppmv.

Now, what do you suppose the temperature graph looks like given the Mauna Loa CO2 results between 1958 – 2006?