Climate watchers fret over Trump's cut to sciences

The Manila Times

Climate watchers fret over Trump's cut to sciences  The Keeling Curve, which has measured atmospheric CO2 since 1958 and serves as a benchmark for climate change data, appears to be under threat from budget cuts proposed by the Trump administration. Ralph Keeling, a professor of geochemistry at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, warns: "This is very rock-solid data, but the program that produces it is fragile. We now face a vulnerability due to uncertainty about funding and priorities, which puts these kinds of measurements at risk."   AFP VIDEO  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe   Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net   Follow us:  Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook  Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram  Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter  DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion   Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital   Check out our Podcasts:  Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify  Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts  Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic  Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer  Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein  #TheManilaTimes #worldnews  #science  #donaldtrump

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00:00He did this, or when he calibrated all this, he was working at Scripps, right?

00:11Yeah, so this will add one more point to the Keeling Curve.

00:15Why is that important?

00:17Well, why is the curve important, right?

00:19It's telling us where we've come and where we're going on carbon dioxide and therefore on climate.

00:24So it's the big picture.

00:26It's the iconic record of how the planet has changed and how it will change going forward.

00:42I mean, one way to look at the climate problem is if you don't even acknowledge it,

00:46you obviously can't be ready for what's coming next.

00:50So it's a problem.

00:52Since then, that may be a part of the difference for me.

00:55Yeah, the U.S. has really been in a leadership role in this field and in related fields of science and climate change,

01:03as well as many fields of science.

01:05And it's really sad to see the U.S. seeding leadership.

01:10It's not just sad for our country, but it's sad for the world because it means it's going to hold back the community.

01:17The U.S. has been leading and probably still needs to lead.

01:20We have the infrastructure out there to do things like no one else.

01:23What does it show?

01:25First of all, that carbon dioxide is just going up and up and up.

01:30Why is it going up?

01:31Because we're burning fossil fuels and fossil fuel CO2 exhaust is accumulating in the atmosphere.

01:39And it's going up faster in recent years than in the past.

01:44So we're not only breaking all-time records for carbon dioxide concentration,

01:49we're also breaking all-time records for how fast it's increasing.

01:53Why?

01:54Because we're burning more fossil fuel now than we did in the past.

01:57It's pretty simple.

01:59This is very rock-solid data, but the program that makes this is fragile.

02:05And so we have a vulnerability now in the context of uncertainty about funding

02:12and uncertainty about priorities to keep these kinds of measurements going.

02:19If you pull the water out first, it freezes at a lower temperature.

02:28And we know it's happening.

02:29The data's all there.

02:31We're not making it up.

02:32And so I think the record we have just of the very simple thing

02:37of how much the CO2 goes up every year

02:39and how it keeps going up more and more and more

02:41is really important just to show people

02:44we haven't solved the problem by any means.

02:47The problem just gets worse every year.

02:50The Earth's climate does not depend on what country you're in.

02:55It's a silly idea to think that it would

02:57or that one country could just ignore it

03:00and everyone else will just take up the slack.

03:03And, I mean, we're all on the same boat, as they like to say.

03:08So we all have to work together to ensure that humanity

03:13and every other living, you know, species on the planet

03:18has a healthy environment in the future.

03:20And, well, it looks like you all have to� that region.

03:40And I hope there's a good

03:50You

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