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350.org Founder McKibben Discusses Significance Of Record Atmospheric Carbon Levels

By Megan Burke / News Editor, Mark Sauer / Host, The Roundtable

Published May 16, 2019 at 7:19 AM PDT

This story was published more than 5 years ago.

The Palace of Fine Arts and the San Francisco city skyline are obscured due to smoke and haze from wildfires, Nov. 19, 2018. U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says wildfires in California in 2018 released roughly the same amount of carbon emissions as are produced each year to provide electricity to the state.

Bill McKibben has been sounding the alarm about human-caused climate change for more than 30 years. He is the founder of the seminal environmental group 350.org, so named because 350 parts per million is considered the safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon concentrations surpassed 415 parts per million this week.

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, in an undated photo.

This week concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has surpassed 415 parts per million. It's the highest level recorded in human history. Temperatures in the Arctic were in the mid-80s this week.

McKibben has a new book out called, “Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?”

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As part of coverage from the KPBS Climate Change Desk, McKibben joins Midday Edition Wednesday to talk about the significance of surpassing 415 parts carbon dioxide per million in the earth's atmosphere.

VIDEO: The Keeling Curve Hits 415 PPM

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Megan Burke

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Megan Burke is an Emmy-award winning news editor overseeing the environment, health, and racial justice and social equity reporting beats. Prior to her current role as editor, Megan spent more than a decade as a producer for KPBS Midday Edition, a daily radio news magazine and podcast. Other news production credits include KPBS Evening Edition, KPBS Roundtable, and San Diego’s DNA, a two-part documentary highlighting the region’s oldest traditions and culture using personal artifacts and oral histories of San Diegans.

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Mark Sauer

A newspaperman for more than 30 years, Mark Sauer joined KPBS in October 2010 and previously served as the host of the KPBS Roundtable. He spent 27 years as a reporter and editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune after stints at The Houston Post and at two papers in his native Michigan. A features/human-interest writer in the UT's Currents section for many years, Mark also spent about a third of his UT career as an editor and reporter on the Metro Desk. He has covered a wide range of events: Wild fires in Southern California and Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast; Super Bowls and the World Series; foster care and child-abuse issues; the Roman Catholic Diocese's sexual-abuse scandal and bankruptcy; royal visits of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles and Princess Diana; Republican and Democratic national conventions; high-profile criminal trials; and many other stories, from the silly to the sublime. Along the way, he interviewed everyone from presidents to pan-handlers. His work exposing the false accusations and prosecutions of several San Diegans for murder, rape and child abuse garnered Pulitzer Prize nominations and many regional and local journalism awards, including Best in the West, the Sol Price Award for Responsible Journalism and several San Diego and California bar-association awards. Mark has a degree in journalism from Michigan State University.

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