Politics and Human Rights.

Today is Sunday 24th March 2024. The latest daily atmospheric CO2 level reading from CO2 Earth is 425.48 ppm, for the 22nd March, which compares with 420.64 ppm for the 22nd March 2023, an increase of 4.84 ppm = 1.15% p.a. The latest daily atmospheric CO2 level reading from the Keeling Curve is also for the 22nd March, and is 425.28 ppm. The monthly average for February 2024, according to the NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory , was 424.55 ppm, compared to 420.3 ppm a year earlier, an increase of 4.25 ppm = 1.01% p.a. The NOAA has recorded nineteen daily CO2 readings so far this month at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, with an average of 425.486 ppm = 824.5 mg/m^3  = ~3,320.63 GtCO2. The Bloomberg Carbon Clock , meanwhile, has reached 424.63 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. Whatever its precise value, atmospheric CO2 is now much higher than at any time in the past 805,000 years (Yamamoto, M.  et al , Nature Geoscience , 31st March 2022) and, indeed, in the last 3.3 million ye

Today is Friday 9th February 2024. Yesterday, the 8th, according to CO2 Earth , the daily atmospheric CO2 level was 425.6 ppm, up from 420.12 ppm on the 8th February 2023. This is an increase of 5.48 ppm = 1.3% p.a. 425.6 ppm = 824.7 mg/m^3 = 3,321.519 GtCO2. The Keeling Curve gives a slightly lower figure for the 8th February of 425.1 ppm = 823.8 mg/m^3 = 3,317.616 GtCO2. The daily levels for February have been consistently higher than those of January this year, except for the first two days, which were both 422.21 ppm. The NOAA's Global Monitoring Laboratory recorded a monthly mean of 422.8 ppm for January 2024, up from 419.48 ppm for January 2023, an increase of 3.32 ppm = 0.79% p.a., but the daily means have increased substantially since the 4th February, with that date's figure being 426.21 ppm, that for the 6th being 425.89 ppm, and that for the 7th - like that for the 8th - being 425.6 ppm. According to de la Vega et al, 2020 , CO2 during the KM5c stage of the Mid-Pi

In an interview with ITV's deputy political editor,  Anushka Asthana, published in The Guardian on Saturday 13th January 2024, in answer to her question about redistribution of income and wealth from the rich to the poor, Sir Keir Starmer, the Leader of the Labour Party, had this to say: 'No, that isn't how I want to grow the economy. I don't think redistribution is the sort of one-word answer for millions of people across the country... I'm afraid if it's just redistribution, I think that fundamentally disrespects people.' Redistribution has, of course, nothing to do with growing the economy, and no-one is arguing for absolute equality, merely - but vitally - for greatly reduced inequality , so the 'dignity and respect due to skilled work' he referred to is an irrelevance, particularly as many of the super-rich derive their wealth and income, not from work, skilled or otherwise, but from interest and rents. Starmer is - once again - displaying his

Today is Tuesday 9th January 2024. According to the Global Monitoring Laboratory of the US NOAA, Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, the monthly average atmospheric CO2 level in December 2023 was 421.86 ppm, compared to 418.99 ppm in December 2022. This is an increase of 2.87 ppm, or ~0.685% p.a. The latest methane (CH4) figures, also from the NOAA , are for the month of September 2023, and show an average of 1,927.35 ppb (= 1.92735 ppm), compared to 1,915.44 ppb (= 1.91544 ppm) for September 2022, an increase of 11.91 ppb, or ~0.622% p.a. The World Meteorological Organisation ( WMO ) informs us that CO2 was 149% higher in 2021 than in pre-industrial times; that, from 2011 to 2020, 48% of emissions from human activities accumulated in the atmosphere, 26% in the oceans and seas, and 29% on land. From 1990 to 2021, heating impacts of long-lived greenhouse gases (LLGHGs) increased by 49%, with 80% of these impacts due to CO2. The Keeling Curve informs us that the latest atmospheric CO2 readi

Today is Wednesday 20th December 2023. The Global Monitoring Laboratory of the US NOAA reports that atmospheric CO2 averaged 420.46 ppm in November of this year, compared to 417.47 ppm in November 2022, an increase of 2.99 ppm, or 0.716% p.a. The daily means for the past twelve days (inclusive of this one) can be found at NOAA , or here: for the 9th: 421.31 ppm; for the 10th: 421.56; the 11th: 421.66; the 12th: 421.99; the 13th: 421.78; the 14th: 421.8; the 15th: 423.38; the 16th: 423.21; the 17th: 422.67; the 18th: 422.38; the 19th: 422.03; and the 20th: 421.94. The average for those twelve days is 422.1425 ppm. The Keeling Curve's atmospheric CO2 level reading for yesterday, the 19th December, was 421.58 ppm. The difference of 0.45 ppm between that reading and the one provided by the NOAA can, perhaps, be accounted for if the two figures are translated into milligrammes per cubic metre (mg/m^3): 422.03 ppm = 817.8 mg/m^3; 421.58 ppm = 816.9 mg/m^3, a difference of just 0.9 mg/m

Today is Thursday 30th November 2023. The NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory  (GML) recorded a CO2 level of 420.59 ppm for the 28th November, and the Keeling Curve one of 421.24 ppm for the 29th. Although still below the peak of 424.76 ppm recorded by the GML on 29th May of this year, November's average is back above 420 ppm. The NOAA's Annual Greenhouse Gas Index ( AGGI ) in 2022 was 1.49, or 523 ppm CO2equivalent. They haven't published one for this year yet, but it will be higher. The details of their calculations are here .