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Mike McGee

The month I was born, atmospheric CO₂ was 317.70 parts per million (ppm).  Throughout my life, increases in the earth's background CO2 level has averaged 1.5 ppm per year.  Sadly, it has yet to decline from any one year to the next.

Today, atmospheric CO2 is at the advanced stages of crossing the 400 ppm threshold in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Southern Hemisphere is not far behind.

My focus on atmospheric CO2 began in 2007.  It was then when I realized that these big, planetary numbers tell us whether humanity is making big global environmental problems bettter or worse.  There was no need for me to wait anymore for the conclusions of experts or scientific reports to know what is going on.  Last month's numbers from Mauna Loa gave me a direct way to gauge the direction and speed of changes to the earth system as they happen.

These and other vital signs like global temperature gave me a more precise, quantified way to sense changes in health of our home planet.  I felt compelled to make them more easily accessible to anyone who is interested—to non-experts like me.

Since 1992, I have worked for the provincial government in British Columbia.  Since 2000, I have done policy and communications work for a transportation licensing tribunal.  I am also a Master's Candidate working toward a degree in environmental education and communication at Royal Roads University.  My CO2.Earth activities are part-time, volunteer and independent of my employer, university, scientific institutions and any other group or organization.

This is the short story behind ay launch of themosimportantnumber.org in 2007, CO2Now.org in 2008, and CO2.Earth in 2015.  This new website takes a few giant steps forward.  In particular, it brings together a few big planetary numbers in a context that makes them easier to find, understand and use. 

The site is a kind of experiment.  The idea is to offer a way to directly track 'planetary change signals' for themselves and learn what they mean in the process.  And for those who are interested, it goes a step beyond by pointing toward the planetary conditions that we will need to create if we are to stabilize big chalenges like warming temperatures, rising greenhouse gas levels, acidifying oceans, and changing climates. 

Michael McGee
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

 

 

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