Ralph Keeling on the Keeling Curve and Climate Change

“I look at my father’s work as a beautiful piece of work…a signal that reflects the whole world…[and] a ringing alarm bell. The only light at the end of the tunnel is weaning ourselves of fossil fuels – a huge challenge, but one that isn’t impossible.”

Ralph Keeling, professor of geochemistry and Principal Investigator for the Atmospheric Oxygen Research Group at Scripps Institute of Oceanography, developed techniques to precisely measure changes in atmospheric oxygen levels. He is also the director of the Scripps CO2 Program, the measurement program behind the Keeling Curve, a daily record of global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration begun in 1958 by his father, Charles David “Dave” Keeling. Dave and Louise Keeling raised their five children in Del Mar, where Louise still resides. The quotation above is from a March 2017 Sandpiper article, “A Signal That Reflects the Whole World: The Keelings, Del Mar & Climate Change.” Click here to view the full article from the March 2007 issue of the Sandpiper.