Something to keep in mind…

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ARCTIC WARMING INTENSIFIES
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A new study, Key indicators of Arctic climate change: 1971–2017, published this last Monday, addresses many aspects of the alarming 3.1C Arctic temperature intensification during the cold season.
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“I didn’t expect the tie-in with temperature to be as strong as it was,” Walsh
said. “All the variables are connected with temperature. All components of the Arctic system are involved in this change.
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“Never have so many Arctic indicators been brought together in a single paper,” “

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Twenty researchers compiled 47 years of data to define the key factors of Arctic warming. The nine key climate-change indicators are air temperature, permafrost, hydroclimatology, snow cover, sea ice, land ice, wildfires, tundra, terrestrial ecosystems and carbon cycling.

Of these, increasing air temperatures and precipitation are the two main drivers of warming. All of the above variables are connected to an increase in air temperature.

The jet stream is transporting more heat and, more importantly, more moisture into the Arctic as it moves cold air from the Arctic further southwards. Consequently, weather patterns across the northern mid-latitudes are becoming more persistent and generating extreme weather conditions.

The study is the first to combine observations of physical climate indicators, such as snow cover, with biological impacts, such as a mismatch in the timing of flowers blooming and pollinators working. … “The Arctic biophysical system is now clearly trending away from its previous state and into a period of unprecedented change, with implications not only within but also beyond the Arctic.”

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HOT AIR NEWS ROUNDUP

Extinction Rebellion • US CALL TO ACTION • April 15 - 22, 2019
Extinction Rebellion

Extinction Rebellion US (XR US) is answering this call to rebel. We wholeheartedly invite other groups and movements to join in by taking action and/or doing solidarity actions with frontline resistance movements who are using direct action.

Thoughtful article…

What Will You Say to Your Grandchildren?
Resilience 4-8-19

Faced with these realities, I understand why Deep Adaptation followers throw their hands up in despair and prepare for collapse. But I believe it’s wrong and irresponsible to declare definitively that it’s too late—that collapse is “inevitable.” It’s too late, perhaps, for the monarch butterflies, whose numbers are down 97% and headed for extinction. Too late, probably for the coral reefs that are projected not to survive beyond mid-century. Too late, clearly, for the climate refugees already fleeing their homes in desperation, only to find themselves rejected, exploited, and driven back by those whose comfort they threaten. There is plenty to grieve about in this unfolding catastrophe—it’s a valid and essential part of our response to mourn the losses we’re already experiencing. But while grieving, we must take action, not surrender

CO2 levels pass 3-million-year record
Climate News Network 3-8-19

German scientists have confirmed, once again, that carbon dioxide is reaching concentrations unprecedented on any human time scale, with CO2 levels in the atmosphere already higher than they have been for at least three million years. … And their computer simulations – backed up by analysis of ocean sediments that tell a tale of changing temperatures and greenhouse gas levels – show that before the century’s close the world will become warmer than at any time in the last three million years. … The last time planetary temperatures reached a level higher than the target set by 195 nations in Paris in 2015 was during a bygone geological period, the Pliocene.

Excellent diagrams…

Visualizing the Interconnections Among Climate Risks
AGU100 1=3=19

The paper demonstrates in a most holistic manner how climate change can generate various risks and how they are actually interconnected. … we identified 91 climate risks and 253 causal relationships among them and graphically drew such interconnected risks. We found that changes in the climate system impact the natural and socioeconomic system, influencing ultimately human security, health, and well‐being.

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LARGER
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Very interesting article…

Carbon Capture: Expensive Pipe Dream or “Holy Grail”?
Climate Investigations Center 3-6-19

two recent reports bring into question the feasibility of CCS technology to mitigate the climate crisis. The first report, released by the Center for International Environmental Law, addresses the potential of CCS to further entrench fossil fuels. The second report, authored by engineers from the Imperial College London and released in Nature, outlines the enormous infrastructural and economic challenges to making CCS an effective mitigation technology.

America’s Missed Climate Targets Cost Global Economy $1 Trillion, Dublin-based Think Tank Finds
Desmog 4-2-19

Since 1992, the United States consistently has missed its targets for reducing globe-warming emissions, and a Dublin-based think tank estimates the resulting damage to the global economy has been $1 trillion. … The U.S. polluted far more — 20 billion tons of CO2 worth — than American negotiators said it would during repeated rounds of global climate deals, including Rio in 1992, Kyoto in 1997, Copenhagen in 2009, and Paris in 2015, a report published by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) today concludes

Puerto Rico Passes 100% Clean Energy Bill. Will Natural Gas Imports Get in the Way?
Inside Climate News 3-19-19

This week, Puerto Rico's legislature chose clean energy. It passed an ambitious renewable energy bill that attempts to put the territory on a fast track to generating all of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050. … "There are different forces trying to push in different directions," Kunkel said. "There is a strong push for renewable energy and distributed generation at the same time that there is a strong push for natural gas

Fascinating…

A glacier the size of Florida is on track to change the course of human civilization
Alternet 4-2-19 h/t ggersh

But that was just one of the terrors that the satellites found, it confirmed fears that “Thwaites was not attached to the bedrock”. … The glacier has been coming unstuck from a ridge in the bedrock at a steady rate of about 0.4 to 0.5 miles (0.6 to 0.8 kilometers) a year since 1992. Despite this stable rate of grounding-line retreat, the melt rate on this side of the glacier is extremely high. … With increased warming and the rise of sea levels, superstorms will become an entirely new animal.

China’s power industry calls for hundreds of new coal power plants by 2030
Unearthed 3-28-19

The largest power producers in China have asked the government to allow for the development of between 300 and 500 new coal power plants by 2030 in a move that could single-handedly jeopardise global climate change targets.

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OIL
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In-depth excellent reporting…
6 awkward realities behind B.C.’s big LNG giveaway
The Narwhal 4-6-19

B.C. government began proposing major tax incentives to entice a wayward LNG industry. … On March 25 those proposals were transmitted into new legislation that bundles tax exemptions and cheap electricity rates into an incentive package worth an estimated $5.35 billion to LNG Canada, a consortium of some of the most profitable multinationals in the world.

Russia seeks new Arctic oil frontier
RT 4-6-19

Rosneft, Russia’s state-controlled oil company and the largest oil producer in the country, plans to develop an Arctic cluster of oil fields over the next five years. … For Rosneft, the Northern Sea Route, if connected to inland oil fields in Russia’s north, could provide another export avenue for its oil, especially to the markets in Asia.

Colorado Drillers Face Tougher Rules Under New Reforms
Bloomberg 4-4-19

Under the measure, the explorers could face new levels of oversight from local governments, which would be able to regulate the siting of surface infrastructure and impose other rules around drilling. The legislation also shifts the focus of the state’s energy regulator from fostering oil and gas development to protecting public health, safety and the environment. … The shale boom has vaulted Colorado to the nation’s no. 5 oil producer, ahead of both Alaska and California in crude output.

Notley vs. Kenney on how to deal with Alberta’s 167,000 inactive and abandoned oil and gas wells
The Narwhal 4-3-19

The government estimates 77,000 wells have been plugged — known in the industry as “abandoning” — and another 90,000 are sitting inactive. Those inactive wells are not yet plugged, and neither category has been reclaimed. … The vast majority of these are wells that still have a rightful owner who is supposed to pay for their clean up. … But in Alberta, there’s currently no requirement as to when they do that

U.S. regulator rules out Exxon shareholder vote on climate resolution
Ruters 4-2-19

Exxon Mobil Corp is not required to let its shareholders vote on setting greenhouse gas targets, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Tuesday, agreeing with the company’s request to reject the proposal. … Exxon in late January asked the SEC for permission to bar a shareholder submission calling on the company to set emissions targets beginning next year that “aligned with the greenhouse gas reduction goals established by the Paris climate agreement.”

Blamed for Climate Change, Oil Companies Invest in Carbon Removal
NYT 4-7-19

Chevron, Occidental Petroleum and BHP have invested in Carbon Engineering, a start-up developing technology to take carbon out of the atmosphere.

Oil prices spike to 5-month high as military conflict in Libya escalates
RT 4-8-19

“OPEC’s ongoing supply cuts and US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela have been the major driver of prices throughout this year,” chief market strategist at futures brokerage FXTM Hussein Sayed told Reuters. … “However, the latest boost was received from an escalation of fighting in Libya which is threatening further supply disruption,” he said.

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WEATHER
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'Life-threatening' blizzard bears down on north-central U.S.
Reuters 4-9-19

The slow-moving storm is set to bring heavy, wet snow across the region. Residents could expect downed trees, widespread power outages and road closures, Burke said. Driving is likely to be treacherous, he said. ... Some areas of western Minnesota and southeast South Dakota could see as much as 30 inches (76 cm) of snow. ... South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem on Wednesday closed state government offices in 52 counties under a blizzard warning

Flooding disaster continues to unfold in the Midwest
The Buffalo News 4-1-19

Years of market saturation and low prices led to farmers storing record amounts of their harvest. … relief for stored grain losses hasn't been considered critical because the types of flooding that reached silos typically came with advance notice … but the flooding that has already hit Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota so hard came with much less warning. The “bomb cyclone” that produced a roaring blizzard on the high plains also brought soaking rains and thawing snow on top of frozen soils .. Multiple levees and dams failed in this onslaught … In Iowa alone, 416,000 acres in six counties were inundated. Losses include stored corn and soybeans.

Record Floods in Iran Kill 62, Cause Over $1 Billion in Damage
Weather Underground 4-3-19

record flooding that have killed at least 62 people and caused $1.1 billion in agricultural damage. Unofficial estimates have put the total economic cost at $3.6 billion. According to EM-DAT, this would rank as the second most expensive flood in Iranian history, behind the $5.4 billion damage (2019 dollars) wrought by the floods of April – June 1992. The death toll of the 2019 floods rank as the 18th deadliest flood in Iranian history.

Rains, frozen ground, record-breaking snowfall, the bomb cyclone, broken levees and climate change all contributed…

Did climate change cause the flooding in the Midwest and Plains?
Yale Climate Connections 4-2-19

The risk of flooding isn’t expected to let up anytime soon. For the first time since the U.S. Drought Monitor started reporting data, the entire Midwest climate region has been free of drought for four consecutive weeks starting February 26. Soil moisture is high, there’s more snow yet to melt in the upper Midwest, and climate change has made spring an increasingly wet season in the region.

70 Dead From Weeks of Flooding in Iran as Warnings Continue
Ecowatch 4-8-19

The floods have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to agriculture and water infrastructure across the country and forced thousands to flee their homes. Since March 19, around 1,900 cities and villages have been inundated … Hassannia said Saturday that road access to 275 villages in the province were blocked and that 200 bridges and 400 kilometers (approximately 248.5 miles) of roads had been destroyed.

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ADAPTION AND RESILIENCE

Batteries are key to clean energy — and they just got much cheaper
Grist 4-11-19

In a little less than a year, the cost of lithium-ion batteries has fallen by 35 percent … What’s driving the plunge? Giannakopoulou cites “technology innovation, economies of scale, stiff price competition and manufacturing experience.” Other storage methods, like pumped hydro, still account for the vast majority of energy storage capacity, but lithium-ion batteries are much more flexible and don’t require specific locations or environmental conditions

GOP mayor of Carmel, Indiana, turns his city into a pedestrian paradise
Yale Climate Connections

“We need to construct our streets and our cities for people. Not for cars.” … “You really don’t need a car, and that’s a very rare thing in what was formerly a car suburb.”

Excellent article with great graphs…

How State Power Regulators Are Making Utilities Account for the Costs of Climate Change
Desmog 4-3-19

If your utility accounts for the toll taken by climate change, like Xcel Energy in Colorado does, your state electricity regulator probably makes the company do that. This approach is one behind-the-scenes way that a growing number of states are addressing global warming. … As scholars who study the intersection between policies that deal with climate change and energy, we have studied the rules that govern electric utilities across the nation. Our new report sheds light on where state regulators have the ability to make rules that mandate action on climate change.

Arctic Drilling Ruling Brings Hope to Native Villages, Subsistence Hunters
Inside Climate News 4-3-19

Nuiqsut, a small village nestled on Alaska's North Slope. … The village has become almost entirely surrounded by oil and gas drilling over the past three decades, and the Trump administration has been aggressively pushing for more drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, just west of the village, and off the coast to the north. … a federal judge brought a rare wave of relief for Itta with a ruling that effectively halted plans for offshore drilling in much of the Arctic Ocean off Alaska.

Utilities See Green in the Electric Vehicle Charging Business — and Growing Competition
Inside Climate Change 4-5-19

With electric vehicle sales climbing, utilities are investing in thousands of new EV charging stations, recognizing that if they don't move now, they could lose out on a growing and increasingly competitive market. … The latest example is Duke Energy, which this week proposed a $76 million program in North Carolina

Visionary Study Shows How 30 Percent of World's Ocean Could Be Made Sanctuaries by 2030
Common Dreams 4-4-19

Greenpeace released a report Thursday which lays out a plan for how world leaders can protect more than 30 percent of the world's oceans in the next decade—as world governments meet at United Nations to create a historic Global Oceans Treaty aimed at strictly regulating activities which have damaged marine life. … In the report—titled "30x30: A Blueprint for Ocean Protection" (pdf)—researchers from the Universities of York and Oxford divided the world's oceans into 25,000 62-square mile sections, mapping out a network of "ocean sanctuaries" which could be created to help recover lost biodiversity.

Sikh Body Plans To Plant 1 Million Trees To Mark 550th Birth Anniversary Of Guru Nanak
Darpan 4-8-19

A US-based Sikh body on Tuesday said it would plant a million trees to mark the 550th birth-anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. … “Guru Nanak was a nature-lover, and in his writings and pronouncements, he always inspired people to look at nature as the divine presence of the Creator and to form a loving relationship with nature,”

The Great Green Wall h/t smiley

The Great Green Wall is an African-led movement with an epic ambition to grow an 8,000km natural wonder of the world across the entire width of Africa. … A decade in and roughly 15% underway, the initiative is already bringing life back to Africa’s degraded landscapes at an unprecedented scale, providing food security, jobs and a reason to stay for the millions who live along its path. …Once complete, the Great Green Wall will be the largest living structure on the planet, 3 times the size of the Great Barrier Reef.

Judge Rules Valve Turner Ken Ward Must Be Allowed to Present 'Necessity Defense' for Climate Action
Common Dreams 4-7-19


The Court of Appeals for the state of Washington on Monday overturned valve turner Ken Ward's burglary conviction because he was not allowed to present a climate "necessity defense" of his role in the multi-state action to shut down tar sands pipelines in 2016.
… "Kenneth Ward appeals his conviction for burglary in the second degree after he broke into a Kinder Morgan pipeline facility and turned off a valve, which stopped the flow of Canadian tar sands oil

Hybrid Cathode Boosts Energy Density of Lithium-Sulfur Batteries
The Green Optimist 3-26-19

[The research team] came up with a solid cathode, which comprises of compressed particles made of pure sulfur and Chevrel-phase molybdenum sulfide. These particles increase the electrical conductivity of the cathode, which in turn reduces the need of carbon. In fact, when compared to typical sulfur cathodes, the new invention needs only 10%.

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WILDLIFE & THE ENVIRONMENT

Deadly air pollution has a surprising culprit: Growing corn
Grist 4-4-19

A new study raises serious concerns about the human health consequences of growing corn. Though air quality has improved in the United States in recent decades, fine particulate matter still kills about 71,000 people each year — and is one of the leading causes of death globally. About 4,300 of those deaths are from the process of growing corn, mostly due to the application of ammonia as a fertilizer.

Logging Is the Lead Driver of Carbon Emissions from US Forests
Earth Island Journal 4-4-19

industrial logging — even when conducted under the euphemism of “thinning” — results in a large net loss of forest carbon storage, and a substantial overall increase in carbon emissions that can take decades, if not a century, to recapture with regrowth. Logging also tends to make fires burn faster and more intensely while degrading a forest ecosystem’s ability to provide natural protections against extreme weather events.

Warming seas wreck Great Barrier Reef's regrowth
PHYS ORG 4-3-19

Following the unprecedented loss of swathes of the reef—the world's largest living structure—in successive ocean heatwaves in 2016 and 2017, the number of new corals measured a year later was found by a team of scientists to be 89 percent lower than historical levels.

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PROTESTS • EXTINCTION REBELLION • RESISTANCE

Fridays For Future
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#FridaysForFuture Germany presented political demands today at #mfnberlin. Our Director General Johannes Vogel opened the press conference: "The museum is a space to enhance the dialogue between #science and society. It’s time to act!" #ClimateAction #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/uDBRWhk55J

— Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (@mfnberlin) April 8, 2019

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Fridays for Future announces ambitious climate goals for Germany
DW 4-8-19

The student environmental activist group has issued a concrete set of demands to German politicians, including a greenhouse gas tax and net-zero emissions by 2035. The German branch of environmental activist group Fridays for Future outlined their climate change policy goals at a press conference held on Monday in Berlin. … The paper, "Our demands for climate protection," seeks to put pressure on politicians to take quicker action to prevent continued global warming.

Sweet…

Meet the inspiring teenage girls standing up for their beliefs around the world
Stylist 4-4-19

From campaigning against climate change to supporting children whose parents are at risk of deportation, these young women are making a change. … “I have so much admiration for girls who are playing a part in their communities or standing up for issues that they really believe in,” … we set out to celebrate teenage girls from across the globe who are using their voices and talents to make a difference.

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Greta Thunberg
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Just asked PM if she'll meet inspiring climate activist @GretaThunberg in Parliament in 2 weeks' time.

Greta has met the Pope, spoken at Davos & received Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

Seems PM still needs a bit more persuading.

RT if you think she should meet. #strike4climate pic.twitter.com/PZIzGMrRAl

— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) April 10, 2019

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Extinction Rebellion
JOIN EX USA: on their website
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EX NEWSLETTERS & EVENTS: on their website
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PRESS RELEASE // This Monday the International Rebellion begins. We will be taking 5 Central London sites and bringing major disruption to the capital. Please read our press release and find out all you need to know about the coming weeks: https://t.co/clanwQFi0E

— Extinction Rebellion (@ExtinctionR) April 9, 2019

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'The stakes are too high': Christian faithful take up climate protest
Reuters 4-8-19

Ringing a bell as they walked, the 45 adults – all participants in Extinction Rebellion, a protest movement seeking rapid action to curb global warming ... Among those at the protest in March were three members of Christian Climate Action, ... Climate change “is leading to a social collapse. We need to respond in more caring and collective ways,” said Phil Kingston, 83, a Catholic church member

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Saving the world is not a waste of anybody's time. Government & media must #TellTheTruth about the climate & ecological crisis and act like the truth is real because it is. #RebelForLife during #InternationalRebellion from Monday: https://t.co/PzxBohj9iuhttps://t.co/PwmQZdbUjk

— Extinction Rebellion (@ExtinctionR) April 10, 2019

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Extinction Rebellion: Saving the world or wasting police time?
BBC 4-9-19

At their Downing Street demonstration, which they have called Blood of our Children because they are covering the street with fake blood, 31-year-old Lorna Greenwood is demonstrating with the group for the first time. ... "I don't want to be standing here, six months pregnant, breaking the law," she tells the crowd. ... "I don't want to spend my weekend in a police cell, and I don't want to be giving more work to our overstretched and undervalued police force. But I don't feel like I have any other options."

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CLIMATE STUDIES

Scientists discover deep microbes' key contribution to Earth's carbon cycle
PHYS ORG 4-5-19

Microorganisms can also "eat" hydrocarbons underground, preventing them from reaching the atmosphere. … [scientists] show that biological hydrocarbon degradation gives a unique biological signature. These findings could help detect subsurface biology and understand the carbon cycle and its impact on climate. … The ways in which carbon is fixed and processed during the formation of these reservoirs have important consequences for resource exploration. In addition, the release of hydrocarbons from Earth's subsurface reservoirs can have important implications on Earth's climate

Earth will take millions of years to recover from climate change mass extinction, study suggests
Independent 4-8-19

“From this study, it’s reasonable to infer that it’s going to take an extremely long time – millions of years – to recovery from the extinction that we’re causing through climate change and other methods,” … The new research, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, suggests it is the rate of evolution that is the limiting factor. … “We see this in our study, but the implication should be that these same processes would be active in all other extinctions,”

WHEN CLOUDS CANNOT CONTINUE – THE GREAT WARMING
Radio Ecoshock 4-3-19

At cloud doomsday Earth’s temperature soars 8 degrees C, 14 degrees Fahrenheit. We hope that will never come, but if we go there, that is the end. New science from the lead author, Tapio Schneider at NASA. Then from the Post Carbon Institute, Jason Bradford predicts the tide of humans into cities will reverse. The future is food, and local – and we can prepare now for the end of fossil fuels and continuing climate threats.

Carbon dioxide levels highest in 3 million years, shows unprecedented computer simulation
PHYS ORG 3-4-19

CO2 greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are likely higher today than ever before in the past 3 million years. During this time, global mean temperatures never exceeded preindustrial levels by more than 2 degrees C. The study is based on breakthrough computer simulations of ice age onset in Earth's past climate.

Global Warnings

QMS: Time to disconnect greed from the welfare of earth, if survival means anything. I like trees.

Paul Beckwith: "I declare a global climate change emergency to claw back up the rock face to attempt to regain system stability, or face an untenable calamity of biblical proportions."

Kevin Hester: "There is no past analogue for the rapidity of what we are baring witness to. There has been a flood of articles ... 2C is no longer attainable and that we are heading for dangerous climate change"

Guy McPherson: "The recent and near-future rises in temperature are occurring and will occur at least an order of magnitude faster than the worst of all prior Mass Extinctions. Habitat for human animals is disappearing throughout the world, and abrupt climate change has barely begun."

Magi Amma: We need to turn on a dime at mach nine!

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Equivalencies:
• 1 gigatonne = 1 billion tons
• 1 gigatonne Carbon = 3.67 gigatonnes CO2
• 1 part per million (ppm) of atmospheric CO2 = 7.81 gigatonnes CO2
• 1 part per million of atmospheric carbon = 2.13 gigatonnes of carbon

Enjoy!