There's a first time for everything...
I don't check the values at the Mauna Loa Carbon Dioxide Observatory every day, although I do check it weekly.
Often, but not regularly, I check the Recent Daily Average Mauna Loa CO2 in anticipation of what the weekly average data might look like the following Sunday.
Today, accessed on 3/21/21 at 6:10 pm EDT, it looked like this:
March 20: 418.46 ppm
March 19: 418.22 ppm
March 18: 418.18 ppm
March 17: 417.25 ppm
March 16: 417.31 ppm
More interesting are the hourly figures for 3/21/21, which are shown graphically:
Like I say, I don't look at this particular graph every day, but this is the first time - there is a first time for everything - that I've seen hourly readings over 420 ppm. (We will surely see weekly averages over this value by May, setting new records for the highest values for the concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide ever recorded at the Mauna Loa observatory, but this is the first time - there may have been others recently - I've seen hourly readings that high.)
Speaking of first times, the first time that I heard that so called "renewable energy" would save the world, was when I read the famous "genius" article by the anti-nuke Amory Lovins in October 1976: Energy Strategy, the Road Last Traveled. (In 1980, he predicted that if we didn't abandon nuclear power, there would be nuclear war. Nuclear Power and Nuclear Bombs.)
I haven't experienced any nuclear wars since then, but perhaps I missed something. Let me know if you're aware of one. All the wars I've seen have been wars conducted by converting oil into weapons of mass destruction, and many have been fought to procure oil.
In October of 1976, the monthly mean concentration of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide in the planetary atmosphere was 328.72 ppm.
What's 90 ppm between friends?
I, um, never had much use for Amory Lovins ideas about solar heated molten salt tanks in every suburban backyard, but I will say that I agree with him about the value of energy efficiency, but for quite a different reason.
For him, it's about assholes living "efficiently" in McMansions in Snowmass, CO among the glitterati, with ever more oblivious oracular pronouncements drooling out of their mouthes.
For me, since I understand Jevon's Paradox better than a poorly educated self declared "physicist," energy efficiency is about extending energy to those who lack it, since I regard access to energy as a basic human right.
To each his own, I guess.
I don't know when I first heard that wind turbines would save the world, but it was around that time I heard - and actually believed - that solar cells would save the world. I'm sure that I began hearing about - and believing in - the wind energy scam by the early 1980's.
We used to say, "experiment trumps theory," but the the word "trump" has become an obscenity, so let me suggest that "experiment overrules theory."
If the experiment gives a result different than what the theory predicts, it's not the experiment that should be thrown out, but rather the theory.
After 50 years of cheering and chanting, the theory that so called "renewable energy" would save the world has been experimentally found to be in error.
That's a fact.
Facts matter.
Have a nice evening.
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