HUCE Special Seminar: Ralph Keeling

"Tracking Flows of Carbon at the Global Scale: What We’ve Learned from Atmospheric Measurements" with Ralph Keeling, Professor of Geochemistry, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego.

This event is co-hosted by the Harvard University Center for the Environment and the Salata Institute for Climate & Sustainability.

Fossil-fuel burning is the main cause of rising CO2, with a significant additional source coming from land use, such as conversion of land from one use-type to another. These sources are substantially offset by carbon sinks in the land biosphere and oceans, driven by the rise in CO2. Our understanding of these major carbon flows is limited, however, by several long-standing challenges. For example, the magnitude of land-use emissions remains uncertain to at least a factor of two, much of the variability in CO2 occurring on interannual and decadal time scales is still not understood, and uncertainty in atmospheric circulation substantially impairs our ability to accurately quantify large-scale fluxes based on atmospheric measurements. This talk will discuss the historical basis for our current understanding and also outline new approaches to addressing these long-term challenges.

Keeling’s work centers on long-term measurements of the major constituents in air. He has been on the faculty at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, since 1993. He was the first to demonstrate that the O2 content of air is decreasing due to the burning of fossil-fuels and has directed a program to track this decrease since 1989. Since 2005, he has also directed the Scripps CO2 program, which sustains the iconic record of carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa and other sites, begun by his father, Charles D. Keeling. He is engaged in ongoing research to refine estimates of sources and sinks of carbon dioxide using atmospheric measurements.

Lunch will be provided. This event will be recorded.