Federal scientists announced Friday that the atmospheric level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide has surpassed a critical milestone. It is now more than 50% higher in preindustrial times. This is a record not seen since millions years ago, when Earth was an ocean-inundated hothouse planet.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the monthly average of carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa (Hawaii) was 421 parts per millions for May. This is the month when the critical greenhouse gas reaches its highest level. Scientists said that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were at 280 parts/million before the industrial revolution. Scientists and activists want it to be at least 350 parts per million. The burning of oil, coal and gas produces industrial carbon dioxide.
Scientists say that levels of the gas are continuing to rise when they should be falling. The carbon dioxide level in this year is almost 1.9ppm higher than it was a year ago. This jump is slightly greater than the increase from May 2020 to 2021.
“The world is working to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. But you don’t see it.” Pieter Tans from NOAA, who monitors global greenhouse gas emissions, said that the atmosphere is not changing if you measure it.
Scientists from outside said that the numbers indicate a serious climate change problem.
“Watching these steady but incremental increases in CO2 year to year is like watching a train speed down the tracks towards you in slow motion. It’s frightening,” Andrea Dutton, University of Wisconsin-Madison climate researcher said. “If we keep going on the same track and make a plan to get off the tracks at the last moment, we could die from heatstroke out on the tracks before it gets to us.”
Donald Wuebbles, University of Illinois climate scientist, stated that without reducing carbon pollution, “we will see more damage levels of climate change. More heat waves, more flooding. more droughts. more large storms. and higher sea levels.”
Global carbon emissions did decrease slightly in 2020 due to the pandemic, but they rebounded last. Tans stated that these changes were minor compared to the amount of carbon dioxide that is pumped into our atmosphere each year. This is especially true when you consider the fact that carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds to a thousandyears.
Each year, the world emits approximately 10 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Most of this is absorbed by plants and oceans. This is why May is the peak month for global carbon dioxide emissions. As they grow, plants in the northern hemisphere begin to absorb more carbon dioxide during the summer.
NOAA stated that carbon dioxide levels now are about the same level as they were 4.1 to 4.25 million years ago during the Pliocene period, when sea levels were 16-82 feet (5-25 meters) higher than today. For example, South Florida was totally submerged. These conditions are unlike anything human civilization has ever known.
