The first daily reading above 420 ppm this year has appeared at the Mauna Loa CO2 observatory.

[John ONeill]

5. Wind

In defence of wind, in cases where there's a good amount of hydro, they can work together to give pretty low fiures for g CO2/KWh. Uruguay, Costa Rica, and parts of Brazil often have emissions lower than France does. On the other hand, comparing the amount of power these grids are producing with the population, they're running at fairly low energy levels by European standards. South Australia also manages figures on a par with France or Sweden sometimes - at any rate, always much better than coal-heavy Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. In my own country, NZ ( which has lately dropped off the Electricity Map radar ) hydro dropped from 90% of generation about fifty years ago to around half now, as population and demand rose. Geothermal, nuclear for dummies, makes around 20%. A government study in the 60s predicted nuclear would be needed by about the turn of the century, once we'd burnt most of our gas. Instead we're importing Indonesian coal in dry years, like the last one.