COVID-19 Economic Shutdown in Tandem with Mass Lockdown Not Affecting CO2 - No Decline

This report seems to be a natural follow up to yesterday's carbon cult insanity- 

Which is the group of nutters? The Greeda followers or the questioners? You know it's the Greeda followers!

Roy Spencer Phd- Climatologist/Former NASA scientist

The Mauna Loa atmospheric CO2 concentration data continue to show no reduction in the rate of rise due to the recent global economic slowdown. This demonstrates how difficult it is to reduce global CO2 emissions without causing a major disruption to the global economy and exacerbation of poverty.

After removal of the strong seasonal cycle in Mauna Loa CO2 data, and a first order estimate of the CO2 influence of El Nino and La Nina activity (ENSO), the May 2020 update shows no indication of a reduction in the rate of rise in the last few months, when the reduction in economic activity should have shown up.


I had previously explained why the slowdown would likely not be large enough to affect measured atmospheric CO2 levels compared to natural variations in global sources and sinks of CO2. I calculated that the Energy Information Administration-estimated 11% reductions in CO2 emissions during 2020 would have to be four times larger to stop the rise of atmospheric CO2 over 2019 values (assuming no substantial natural variations in CO2 sources and sinks).

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Geoff Sherrington says: June 5, 2020 at 8:00 PM As I showed on WUWT a week or two ago, the CO2 measurements are at best +/- 1 ppm which places a severe impediment on inferring rates and amounts of change and the allocation of their causes.I am with Roy. I consider the changes in CO2 due to lockdowns are likely to be too small to be detected with acceptable confidence.See what happens when one actually does the science of getting the raw data and analysing it, instead of listening to propaganda informed by propaganda. Geoff S

Brendan says: June 6, 2020 at 5:25 AM 

Cutting to the chase:

The current situation presents a perfect experiment to “justify” one way or another, the influence of humans in the increase in CO2 levels. If it is as bad as the alarmists make out, then we will see it in the keeling curve.So if the alarmists are correct there should be a 2-3 ppm kink in the Keeling Curve. If the pragmatists and realists are correct we should see nothing that is measurable. And that’s what we are seeing – nothing.The decay cycle normally ends in the middle of May each year. Here we are at the end of the first week of June and it has not yet turned the corner and is still rising. Further the maximum rise we see in each decay cycle is 9 ppm. This decay cycle has risen the maximum. We don’t even see a little kink. There is a kink in February but that is seasonal and is there every February.We proved via isotope measurements that CO2 emissions would have a zero effect on atmospheric concentrations. Now we have proved absolutely by CO2 measurements that human CO2 emissions have zero effect on atmospheric CO2 concentrations.It should be noted that the EIA released a report at the end of Q1 2020 showing a projection for CO2 emission reductions averaged over the 12 months of 2020 to be 11%. They did not show any instantaneous reductions. EIA are heavily promoting CO2 emission reductions and the use of unreliable energy sources. They are trying to play down these dramatic reductions in emissions as it doesn’t suit their narrative.

Years and years ago I covered the Keeling Curve:

Hysteria reigns as "CO2 levels cross 410 ppm " First Time In Human History"

 First time in history is just hysteria being generated.- No one can say that with a straight face and only a moron could actually believe that kind of hype.    The Keeling Curve

 This shift between the fall and winter months to the spring and summer results in the sawtooth pattern known as the Keeling Curve measurement of atmospheric CO2 such that every year there is a decline in CO2 during months of terrestrial plant photosynthesis and an increase in CO2 in months without large amounts of photosynthesis and with significant decomposition.

 In general, researchers found strong seasonal CO2 fluctuations throughout the Northern Hemisphere and weaker fluctuations near the equator and in the Southern HemisphereThe station at Barrow, Alaska (71° N latitude), for example, experiences enormous swings in seasonal CO2. In fact, at this site, the daily 400 part-per-million (ppm) benchmark was passed for brief periods starting in 2006At the opposite end of the spectrum, at the South Pole (90°S latitude) and other sites in the Southern Hemisphere, there is hardly any seasonal variability.These latitudinal differences in fluctuation are the result of photosynthetic activity by plants. As plants begin to photosynthesize in the spring and summer, they consume CO2 from the atmosphere and eventually use it as a carbon source for growth and reproduction. This causes the decrease in CO2 levels that begins every year in May.

Because photosynthetic activity is the cause of seasonal CO2 swings, regions with more plants will experience larger fluctuations.