PDF Version  Importance of Reliable Continuous Records of Earth
System Parameters  T.J. Blasing, T. Boden and D. Kaiser  Carbon
Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831; 865-574-7368, E-mail:
blasingtj@ornl.gov  Back in the 1970s we began to focus on
questions involving carbon dioxide and climate change, in
particular: (1) Is atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration
increasing? (2) If so, is it anthropogenic? (3) Is the
tropospheric near-surface air temperature increasing? and (4) Is
the carbon dioxide influence on temperature strong in the
context of other influences? Only reliable, consistent, long-
term monitoring can provide answers to these questions as well
as to others that have since arisen. Some of these other
questions address radiatively active gases other than carbon
dioxide, identifying sources and sinks of carbon at increasingly
finer scales, social consequences of climate change, and
mitigation strategies for greenhouse gas emissions. In this
contex