Editorial

On 50th Anniversary of the Global Carbon Dioxide Record

Georgii A Alexandrov^1,2 , Martin Heimann³ , Chris D Jones⁴ and Pieter Tans⁵

¹  National Institute for Environmental Studies, Onogawa 16-2, Tsukuba, 305-8506, Japan

²  Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevsky 3, Moscow, 109017, Russia

³  Max Plank Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany

⁴  Met Office Hadley Centre, FitzRoy Road, Exeter, EX1 3PB, UK

⁵  NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, USA

author email corresponding author email

Carbon Balance and Management 2007, 2:11doi:10.1186/1750-0680-2-11

Published:	18 December 2007

Abstract

The 50-year global CO₂ record led the way in establishing a scientific fact: modern civilization is changing important properties of the global atmosphere, oceans and biosphere. The evidence on which this scientific fact is based will be refined further, but the next challenge for scientists is broader. In addition to its traditional role in providing discovery, diagnosis, and prediction of the changes that are taking place on our planet, science has now also a role in helping society mitigate emissions by objectively quantifying them, and in helping adaptation by providing environmental forecasts on regional scales. Science is also expected to provide new options for society to tackle the transition to a new energy system, and to provide thorough environmental evaluation of all such options. This is what the meeting recognized as planetary responsibilities for scientists in the next 50 years.