earth from space with the sun reflecting golden light off of water

Action Requires Awareness

Long-term observations of earth’s environment and climate

Long-term records have the power to transform how we view the world.

Each year, due to lack of appreciation and support, we miss opportunities to collect crucial data.

We need environmental datasets like the Keeling Curve to track changes across the atmosphere, oceans, and land.

Our mission is inspired by the Keeling Curve

Charles D. Keeling at a board pointing to Keeling Curve data

Our Mission

To recognize, inspire, and promote accurate long-term observations of the environment, and to communicate their significance for mitigating and adapting to climate change.

charles david keeling tracking atompsheric co2 at mauna los observatory
Mauna Loa observatory

Continuing the Legacy of Charles David Keeling

Charles David Keeling taking air samples
 

Hawai'i 1958

Charles David Keeling initiated the long-term measurements of CO₂ at the Mauna Loa atmospheric observatory.

Early 1960s

His record – known as the Keeling Curve – set off alarm bells that fossil fuel burning was having a negative impact on the environment.

Program in Danger

Funding cuts in the 1960s seriously threatened the program. Few agencies saw value in supporting the same measurements each year.

Record-Setting

Charles David Keeling's long-term, persistent, and precise data tracking sets the precedent for environmental scientists across the globe.

Present Day

In 2022, the Keeling Curve Foundation was founded by Charles’ son, Ralph Keeling, to support other scientists who are similarly committed to long-term observations.

  • “Keeling’s measurements of the global accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere set the stage for today’s profound concerns about climate change. They are the single most important environmental data set taken in the 20th century.”

    – Charles F. Kennel, Ninth Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 2005

  • “A measurement captures, more than any other single number, the extent to which we are changing the world—for better or worse.”

    — Robert Kunzig, National Geographic

  • “If the world today realizes that it has a problem and needs to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, it in large part owes this knowledge to Keeling’s painstaking efforts.”

    – Dr. Martin Heimann (2005), Nature Vol 437/15, pp 331

  • “The Keeling Curve is an icon of modern climate science…The global impacts of climate change are what make Keeling’s work so important, and so celebrated, today.”

    – Dr. Thomas J. Barton, past president of the American Chemical Society, April 23, 2015

Explore Our Resources

clouds over mountain landscape with snow
Keeling Award
group of scientists on boat taking samples from ocean

PHOTO CREDITS  Earth from space: NASA.org, Dave Keeling at the board: The Keeling Family, Dave Keeling air sampling: The Keeling Family, Dave Keeling in the lab: UCSD Digital Collections, Station at Mauna Loa: NOAA Corps / Cmdr John Bortniak, Dave Keeling receiving award, GW Bush: The Keeling Family, Ralph Keeling air sampling: Ralph Keeling