17-07-2025
After 7 Decades of Measurements From a Peak in Hawaii, Trump's Budget Would End Them
More than 11,100 feet above sea level, surrounded by nothing but black rocks, white clouds and blue sky, the Mauna Loa Observatory is in a Goldilocks spot for studying the atmosphere.
The air that swirls around the isolated outpost located on a Hawaiian volcano is a mix from all over the Northern Hemisphere. That makes it one of the best places to measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It is indispensable to scientists around the world.
The readings collected from Mauna Loa, starting in 1958, were used to create what is famously known as the Keeling curve. It's an upward-swooping line that charts the steady rise of carbon dioxide over the past seven decades — the result of nations burning oil, gas and coal.
But President Trump's proposed 2026 budget would put an end to Mauna Loa, along with three other key observatories and almost all the climate research being done by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
'It's frankly inconceivable,' said Lisa Graumlich, an emeritus climate scientist at the University of Washington and past president of the American Geophysical Union. People know and understand the 'iconic' record, she said. 'A lot of the science we do is incredibly complex, and this record is something that can be grasped.'
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
