Carbon Sequestration and Its Role in the Global Carbon Cycle

Abstract

The science of climate change, and the role carbon dioxide (CO2) plays in it, was launched into the public consciousness by Charles David Keeling's investigations in the late 1950s. Keeling conducted early atmospheric carbon measurements high on Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano and found that even after ruling out natural fluctuations, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was increasing year after year. The findings, published in the 1960s, led to the now iconic Keeling curve and raised several questions about the contribution of fossil fuel burning to atmospheric CO2 concentrations. The AGU monograph Carbon Sequestration and Its Role in the Global Carbon Cycle, edited by Brian J. McPherson and Eric T. Sundquist, moves beyond the “how much?” and “where is it coming from?” of atmospheric CO2 and provides an interdisciplinary look at what we can do to address imbalances in the carbon cycle. In this interview, Eos talks with McPherson.