Atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa

Atmospheric CO2 above Hawaii and American self-published-books per year, both compounding. Two pieces of evidence that the world is producing more output, in two completely different categories, on the same calendar.

Mauna Loa CO2 readings rose from about 390 ppm in 2010 to over 415 by 2021 as global fossil-fuel emissions outpaced sinks. Self-published titles per year climbed in parallel as Amazon KDP and falling production costs put publication within reach. Two completely unrelated cumulative processes sharing a window because both lines simply add: CO2 because the input keeps exceeding absorption, books because the cost of publication keeps falling. Different gases, different texts, same era of accumulation.

Two graphs that only know how to go up. Cumulative things have their own gravity.