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| This is the record dating back 67 years of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, as measured on Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Trump and his Musk/DOGE crowd apparently want to end these decades- long observations. The excuse is saving money, but likely just as much climate denial. |
Elon Musk and his DOGE minions want to shut down the more than six decade long science experiment conducted on a Hawaii volcano.
"Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is considering terminating the lease of a tiny office that supports a huge climate science experiment - one that's been ongoing for 67 years."
Only eight people work at the office, Suite 102 at the Kilauea Financial Plaza in Hilo. Once a week or so, one of the employees takes a quick helicopter ride up to a spot 11,135 feet above sea level on a high slope of the Mauna Loa volcano.
Doesn't sound like a big deal, but this is. The scientists do several observations of the atmosphere, and one of these regular observations is one of the most precise and long running, and most watched climate experiments in the world.
The scientists have been tracking carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for 60 years. This long-running experiment provided the first significant, concrete evidence that the earth' CO2 levels were steadily rising, as USA Today reported.
The Mauna Loa site is perfect for these measurements, as NOAA tells us: "The observatory protrudes through the strong marine temperature inversion layer present in the region, which separate the more polluted lower portions of the atmosphere from the much cleaner free troposphere.
"The undisturbed air, remote location, and minimal influence of vegetation and human activity at MLO are ideal for monitoring constituents in the atmosphere that can cause climate change."
The DOGE people say closing the Hilo facility would save $164,000 or so. That's not much given the size of the overall federal budget. My conspiratorial mind wants to think it's because climate change i central to the Mauna Loa site, and we all know how Trump hates it when somebody dares to say climate change is an actual thing.
I'm not the only one thinking this way. In it's journalistic way, the Washington Post beat around the bush a little but you'll get the point in this excerpt from their article:
"Data collected from the observatory have shown global carbon dioxide levels - the most significant driver behind record planetary warming - are rising faster than ever recorded. Trump has been dismissive of that data and the consensus around climate change and his allies who wrote the policy playbook Project 2025 proposed dismantling NOAA, calling it a source of climate alarmism."
Climate scientist Michael Mann, posted his reaction to all this on Bluesky was, as usual, more blunt. "See no climate change, hear no climate change, and speak no climate change."
As usual, the Trump/DOGE crowd don't seem to be coordinating things or understanding what is going on.
If the Hilo office closes, the Mauna Loa observatory would still be there, but with the office gone and the staff fired, if Musk gets his way, there will be nobody to do the actual work up there.
There's another testing site on Mauna Kea, another volcano nearby, but again, that site needs NOAA staff to maintain the equipment.
Not only is the climate data from Mauna Loa valuable, and a resource we might be about to lose, but the move to shut this all down gets rid of history, too.
Back in 1958, scientist Charles David Keeling began the measurements in 1958. His measurements made two important discoveries. He was the first person to record Earth's breathing - a regular rhythm of peaks and valleys in carbon dioxide concentrations.
This proved that seasonally, plants take up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when they're growing, and release it back when the growing season is over and the plants died.
Even more importantly, he was the first to prove that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere were rising due to fossil fuel emissions. This discovery really laid the foundation to the detailed climate change science we have today.
Before the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was at around 280 parts per million. When Keeling first started measuring in 1958, it was up to 313 parts per million. Now, we're up to 427 parts per million and still going up.
That amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere sounds like a trifle to the untrained eye. But the last time carbon dioxide levels were this high was about 3 million years ago. At that time, sea levels were as much as 30 feet higher than they are now, and camel-like animals roamed the forested high Arctic, which is nowadays covered in ice.
That's part of the future we face at least someday due to our sky-high emissions of fossil fuels over the past 150 years or so.
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