Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change, and Civilization 
 

Abstract:  
The rapidity of the modern rise of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is unparalleled in geologic time and, consequently, we can anticipate that changes in climate will be much more rapid than in the past. For almost the entirety of human civilization, carbon dioxide and climate have been largely stable, allowing the development of agriculture which, in turn, freed up enough time for people to think, invent, do new things, and ultimately build civilization. Advances over the past century and a half, largely linked with the Industrial Revolution, have propelled humans to an unprecedented status on planet Earth, where our actions affect not only one another, but also threaten the ecosystems that support us. This presentation builds from a brief history of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its ultimate influence on terrestrial and oceanic systems to describe Earth-system events and their consequences from almost a million years ago through the industrial age to the present day, where climate change and its impacts loom large and portend an uncertain future. How we respond to these changes and the anticipated changes in coming years will determine the success of civilization in coming decades. Solutions are available, can be effective, and will be discussed here, but the most important unknown is how society chooses to respond. Time is running short and the magnitude of the challenge only grows with time.
 

Bio:
Dr. James Butler is a recently retired Earth-system scientist with over 50 years of experience studying the ocean, land, and atmosphere of our planet. He worked most recently as a climate scientist for 35 years at NOAA, studying the causes of climate change and ozone-depletion. As Laboratory Director for the latter 14 of those years, Dr. Butler oversaw the nation’s continuing measurements of atmospheric constituents that affect the world’s climate, including greenhouse and ozone-depleting gases, aerosols, and radiation at Earth’s surface. His published works address the distribution and cycling of gases in the atmosphere, their production and consumption by the ocean, their exchange across the air-sea interface, their distribution in polar snow, and their methods of analysis. He was a regular contributor to international documents on stratospheric ozone depletion, atmospheric chemistry, and global warming. In his retirement, Dr. Butler has served as an advisor to the White House Office of Science and Technology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and other organizations. He continues to give presentations on climate change and what we can do about it to academic and lay audiences.  https://gml.noaa.gov/staff/James.H.Butler/ ;