Journal de chimie analytique environnementale

Environmental Monitoring’s Image Problem.

Abstract

Neil Fitzgerald

Earlier this year the scientific world was shocked by the revelation that the famous Keeling Curve may come to an end due to lack of funding. The curve is the result of 56 years of continuous atmospheric monitoring of carbon dioxide, initially in Hawaii by Charles David Keeling and more recently by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego. The data provided convincing evidence of carbon dioxide’s role in global warming and will be essential in assessing the success of mitigation strategies. After a heartfelt plea from Ralph Keeling, the project was saved, at least temporarily, thanks to a mixture of private and government funds and a successful crowd funding campaign. The plight of the project highlights the fragility and importance of long-term environmental monitoring. In a recent editorial, I lamented the lack of environment data for the New York City area which hampered our ability to draw concrete conclusions from data obtained following Hurricane Sandy. I contrasted this to the recent completion of a forty year project by the British Geological Survey which resulted in a comprehensive map of several elements in the United Kingdom. Why are similar initiatives not occurring in the United States? The difficulty appears to be in securing necessary funds for monitoring projects which do not appear to offer a useful product or exciting innovations.