CO2 higher than it's been in 3 million years: 412 parts per million reached
Environment — di Andrea Barolini
According to a study by the Potsdam Institute, the concentration of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere has reached a historic record.
CO2 higher than it's been in 3 million years: 412 parts per million reached
According to a study by the Potsdam Institute, the concentration of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere has reached a historic record.
412 parts per million. It has been three million years since the quantity of CO2 particles in Earth's atmosphere reached such a high level. The figure – alarming, when one considers that carbon dioxide is the principal driver of global warming – was released by a study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Pik).
To find CO2 levels this high, you have to go back to the Pliocene
The report, published in the scientific journal Science, arrived at its findings through the use of a new assessment model. This made it possible to analyse marine sediments and polar ice cores, which represent genuine time machines capable of showing a "snapshot" of environmental conditions millions of years ago. Our Planet has now set a historic record. It was only at the end of the Pliocene that CO2 concentrations were at similar levels.
"The last time there was this much CO2 in the atmosphere (412 ppm)...5.3 to 2.6 million years ago, sea levels were 20 meters higher ... trees were growing at the South Pole & average global temperatures were 3°-4°C warmer." #ClimateEmergency truthout.org/articles/the-l…
At that time, the Earth was inhabited by Australopithecus africanus, a hominid that some researchers consider an ancestor of modern humans. The average global temperature was 3–4 degrees higher than today. Ocean levels were 15–20 metres higher. And the Antarctic region was covered in vegetation. The upward trend in CO2 has also been confirmed by measurements from the Keeling Curve, which reached as high as 414.15 parts per million.
Correction: @Keeling_curve has meanwhile revised the figure for the 24 hour period of 3 May 2019 down to 414.15 ppm. The overall trend of accelerting #CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere however remains the same
"Serious consequences are now inevitable"
Today it is human beings alone who are responsible for the surge in emissions of this gas, which in turn are fuelling climate change and pushing the international community further from the goal it set itself under the Paris Agreement: to limit the rise in average global temperature, across both land and ocean surfaces, to a maximum of two degrees centigrade by the end of the century compared to pre-industrial levels, while staying as close as possible to 1.5 degrees.
Co2 levels highest for 3 millions years edition.cnn.com/2019/04/04/hea…
On the contrary, "for 150 years, humans have done nothing but pump CO2 back into the atmosphere," noted Martin Siegert, professor of geosciences at Imperial College London, speaking to National Geographic. According to the expert, "serious consequences are now inevitable." The concentration of carbon dioxide has indeed risen by more than 40 per cent over the past century and a half, and will continue to do so in the decades ahead.
Yet even in Europe no country is yet respecting the Paris Agreement
Once dispersed into the atmosphere, CO2 also remains there for a very long time – so much so that some studies believe concentrations could reach two thousand parts per million by the middle of the 23rd century. Despite this, not only are governments that do not regard the climate crisis as a problem multiplying across the world, from the United States to Brazil, but even in Europe no nation is yet doing what is necessary to save the Planet.