"Keeling curve" of carbon dioxide levels becomes chemical landmark

3 minutes, 49 seconds

This short video tells the story of how Charles David Keeling of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, worked with scientists from the U.S. Weather Bureau and NOAA at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory to create what is now an iconic record of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. The measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere taken from 1958 to the present have become the most widely recognized record of mankind’s impact on the Earth, linking rising levels of carbon dioxide from man’s burning of fossil fuels to the warming of the planet.