Chesley Bonestell, “The Exploration of Mars” (1953), oil on board, 143/8 x 28 inches, gift of William Estler, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Reproduced courtesy of Bonestell LLC.

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Hits Record

March 28, 2015

For the first time since the federal government began tracking carbon dioxide in the global atmosphere, the monthly average concentration of this greenhouse gas surpassed 400 parts per million in March 2015, according to latest results. Soon after, the Republican head of the Senate environment committee repeated his claim that carbon pollution is good for the Earth. In what may be a way to help square this circle, a leading conservative scholar has described in Issues policies that might win bipartisan support for reducing carbon emissions to mitigate climate change.