Keeling Curve Screensaver
The Keeling Curve screensaver draws the saw-toothed rise of atmospheric CO₂ measured at Mauna Loa, fresh from NOAA data via the pipeline, with the latest ppm. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.
How the Keeling Curve screensaver works
A background pipeline reads NOAA's monthly atmospheric CO₂ record from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.
The saver plots it as the famous Keeling Curve — a steady climb with a yearly saw-tooth as plants breathe in and out across the seasons.
The latest reading in parts per million is shown big, with the curve scaled to the recent record.
It refreshes when new monthly data is published.
A worked example
The red curve climbs from the left, each year a little saw-tooth notch, the latest point glowing past 420 ppm — the measurement Charles Keeling began in 1958 that first revealed CO₂ rising year on year.
Settings & tips
- Accent recolours the curve.
- Background sets the chart backdrop.
- Run
automation/run.py co2on your pipeline machine to refresh the record.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the data real?
- Yes. It's NOAA's monthly Mauna Loa CO₂ record, gathered by the pipeline, so the curve and latest ppm are the official figures.
- What is the Keeling Curve?
- The continuous record of atmospheric CO₂ begun by Charles Keeling at Mauna Loa in 1958 — the graph that revealed the steady global rise.
- Why is the curve jagged?
- CO₂ dips each northern summer as plants grow and rises each winter, giving the long climb its yearly saw-tooth.
- Why does it use a pipeline?
- NOAA's data file isn't browser-readable directly, so a small background script fetches it and saves a snapshot.
- Is it free?
- Yes — free, no download, in your browser.