The rising levels of carbon di oxide that are being blamed for climate change were relatively unknown before 1958. In that year American chemist and oceanographer Charles Keeling began the key experiment for measuring the quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Keeling set up his observatory at Mauna Loa in Hawaii. He chose the remote location as it was not influenced by any smoky chimneys near by. His initial measurements shows that there was a cyclic dip in the CO2 levels in the summer as plants absorbed more of it from the atmosphere. However by 1961 his measurements showed that levels of CO2 were rising constantly.

He tried to bring his findings to the world, but no one was interested. He even had to struggle for funding. Unfortunately he was not heeded even after managing to scramble for funding to keep the project going for many years. His long running experiment’s data is what helps observers today.

The science project now has over a hundred locations across the globe where CO2 measurements are routinely taken. The Keeling Curve shows us that CO2 concentration was at 315 parts per million by volume in 1958 but has gone up to 401 parts per million by volume in 2014. What’s scary is that its higher than it was in the last eight hundred thousand years, and its still rising.