400 ppm: Probably Not Next Year (at Mauna Loa)

(Click pic to make big. Once per customer, please.)

Even thought some people are starting to utilize the fact that atmospheric CO2 levels are already over 400 ppm in some places (like the Arctic), it still isn't at the most famous place of all, Mauna Loa, where David Keeling started the whole business of CO2 monitoring in the first place.

This year MLO's weekly CO2 value peaked at 397.12 ppm, a 2.16 ppm increase from last year.

So it would need to increase by 2.88 ppm next year to reach 400 ppm, which is unlikely -- it will happen only if there is a strong El Nino in the fall and winter. (And there might be.)

But it will definitely(*) happen by 2014.

--
(*) Except in the case of planetary catastrophe, or Craig Venter's product escapes his lab and goes exponentially rogue.