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Figure 1: Changes in Carbon Dioxide and Temperature

This graph shows CO2 concentrations from 647,000 BC to 2006 AD, and Antarctic temperatures from 421,000 BC to 2000 AD. (Antarctic temperature is measured as the change from average conditions for the period 1850 AD to 2000 AD.) The graph shows a fairly close relationship between CO2 concentrations and temperature during the period when both CO2 and temperature are available, and shows a sharp increase in CO2 concentrations during the 20th century.

Figure 1: Fluctuations in temperature (red line) and in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (yellow) over the past 649,000 years. The vertical red bar at the end  is the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the past two centuries and before 2007.

References

CO2 Data

647426 BC to 411548 BC:  Siegenthaler, U., T. F. Stocker, E. Monnin, D. Lüthi, J. Schwander, B. Stauffer, D. Raynaud, J.M. Barnola, H. Fischer, V. Masson-Delmotte, and J. Jouzel. 2005. Stable Carbon Cycle-Climate Relationship During the Late Pleistocene. Science 310: 1313-1317. Data

415157 BC to 339 BC: Barnola, J.-M., D. Raynaud, C. Lorius, and N.I. Barkov. 2003. Historical CO2 record from the Vostok ice core. In Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tenn., U.S.A. Data

9002 BC to 1515 AD: Flückiger, J., E. Monnin, B. Stauffer, J. Schwander, T.F. Stocker, J. Chappellaz, D. Raynaud, and J.-M. Barnola, 2002, High resolution Holocene N2O ice core record and its relationship with CH4 and CO2, Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles, Volume 16, Number 1, March 2002, 10.1029/2001GB001417. Data

1010 AD to 1978 AD: D.M. Etheridge, L.P. Steele, R.L. Langenfelds, R.J. Francey, J.-M. Barnola and V.I. Morgan. 1998. Historical CO2 records from the Law Dome DE08, DE08-2, and DSS ice cores. In Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tenn., U.S.A. Data

1958-2006 AD: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Earth System Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division. 2007. Monthly Mean CO2 concentrations from Mauna Loa, Hawaii.   (Accessed May 29, 2007). Data

Temperature Data

420,765 BC to 2000 AD: Petit J.R., J. Jouzel, D. Raynaud, N.I. Barkov, J.M. Barnola, I. Basile, M. Bender, J. Chappellaz, J. Davis, G. Delaygue, M. Delmotte, V.M. Kotlyakov, M. Legrand, V. Lipenkov, C. Lorius, L. Pépin, C. Ritz, E. Saltzman, and M. Stievenard. 1999. Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok Ice Core, Antarctica. Nature 399:429-436. Data

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