Of all the evidence scientists have collected about our planet's health, none is more important than a long-running climate record gathered at a lonely outpost atop Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano.
The record, gathered for more than 60 years at the storied Mauna Loa Observatory, has played a critical role in our understanding of climate change by charting the inexorable rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But now, lava flowing from the erupting volcano, has cut access and power to the site, halting this critical monitoring of climatic health.
"It's an incredibly detailed, informative record dating back to the 1950s," says Ralph Keeling, Director of the CO2 Program of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "So if you want to know how the cycling of carbon and our earth system have changed between then and today, you need that record."
This image, taken midday during a helicopter overflight of Mauna Loa's ...
