Apparently, we have irrevocably exceeded 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere.  It could be burning fossil fuels, increased volcanic activity or something unicorns are doing down in middle earth - I don’t care.  It's being measured and CO2 is not something humans are designed to breathe. In fact, "The Last Time CO2 Was This High, Humans Didn’t Exist".

There are implications for climate and the planet, some keenly relevant to the Pacific Northwest, like "intense El Niño cycles—a climatic oscillation that today delivers heavy rainfall to the western U.S."

But it seems "the planet is poised to reach the 1,000 ppm level in only 100 years if emissions trajectories remain at their present level."

We may be forced to make some adjustments since "it is estimated that the collapse of the West Antarctica and Greenland ice-sheets would lead to getting on for fourteen metres of sea-level rise."  That's much more than the Port is planning for on the Central Waterfront.

Will we make good decisions? According to the National Institute of Health (NIH) in one study "At 1,000 ppm CO2, compared with 600 ppm, performance was significantly diminished on six of nine metrics of decision-making performance."

A recent highly touted analysis suggests most industry would not be profitable without externalities that essentially steal our land, air and water quality.  Now it seems they are stealing our cognitive capacities, too - dumbing us down.

Maybe before we get too dumb, we will heed the advice of another NIH study showing "workers had significantly improved cognitive function scores when working in Green and Green+ environments".

A respiratory toolkit may ultimately be more important than the infill toolkits we are currently exploring for our urban environment.