Greenhouse Gas Observatories Downwind from Erupting Volcanoes

Andrew Walden has written an entertaining article at American Thinker, exposing more of the hoax of global warming.  His target: atmospheric CO2 measurement. From the article:

Problems in the collection of atmospheric CO2 data parallel other absurdities in the global warming fraud. The Climategate scandal is exposing the massive and systematic fraud behind the fabrication of the worldwide temperature record necessary to make the case for global warming. But what about the record of atmospheric CO2?


The U.S. NOAA openly admits to producing a CO2 record which "contains no actual data." NOAA temperature stations sited in ways that artificially inflate temperatures have been exposed over the past two years. CO2 observatories have similar flaws. Two of the five NOAA "baseline" stations are downwind from erupting volcanoes. All five are subject to localized or regional CO2 sources. [snip]


Climategate collaborator Dr. Andrew Manning worked with Dr. David Keeling, founder of the Mauna Loa Observatory, where atmospheric CO2 is measured. Manning, whose name appears in 37 Climategate emails, tells BBC: (emphasis added)

The goal behind starting the measurements was to see if it was possible to track what at that time was only a suspicion: that atmospheric CO2 levels might be increasing owing to the burning of fossil fuels.


To do this, a location was needed very far removed from the contamination and pollution of local emissions from cities; therefore Mauna Loa, high on a volcano in the middle of the Pacific Ocean was chosen.


Without this curve, and Professor Keeling's tireless work, there is no question that our understanding and acceptance of human-induced global warming would be 10-20 years less advanced than it is today.

Mauna Loa has been producing a readout which supports Manning's predetermined goal by showing steady growth in atmospheric CO2 concentrations since 1959. This record, highlighted in Al Gore's discredited movie An Inconvenient Truth, is known as the Keeling Curve. A graph of the curve is engraved on a bronze plaque mounted at the entrance to the Observatory’s Keeling Building, 10,000 feet above sea level on the rocky north flank of Mauna Loa. According to the Observatory website: "The undisturbed air, remote location, and minimal influences of vegetation and human activity at MLO are ideal for monitoring constituents in the atmosphere that can cause climate change."


For some reason, they fail to mention the erupting volcano next door.

This is not new information.  Ian Plimer discusses the difficulties of CO2 measurement, including the problems with the data from Mauna Loa, in great detail in his book  Heaven and Earth:  Global Warming the Missing Science.  Here is a passage that I found truly astonishing:

The raw data from Mauna Loa is "edited" by an operator who deletes what may be considered poor data.  Some 82% of the raw infra-red CO2 measurement data is "edited" leaving just 18% of the raw data measurements for statistical analysis.  With such a savage editing of raw data, whatever trend one wants to show can be shown.

The United Nations announced today that it will launch its own investigation into the emails leaked from the East Anglia Climate Research Unit, but discerning observers aren't expecting much.  Maybe the U.N. action will prompt the mainstream news networks to at least mention the Climategate scandal tonight on their broadcasts.  But I won't hold my breath.