CO2 levels rise to highest point since evolution of humans

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   IslandBitesposted 6 years ago

   "We don't know a planet like this."
   
   That was the reaction of meteorologist Eric Holthaus to news that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached heights not seen in the entirety of human existence -- not history, existence.
   
   According to data from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is over 415 parts per million (ppm), far higher than at any point in the last 800,000 years, since before the evolution of homo sapiens.
   
   Holthaus spotted the new high on Sunday when it was tweeted out by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, which measures daily CO2 rates at Mauna Loa along with scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
   
   Measurements have been ongoing since the program was started in 1958 by the late Charles David Keeling, for whom the Keeling Curve, a graph of increasing CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, is named.
   
   The 1958 readings showed the concentration of CO2 was 313 ppm in March 1958, and that had risen to 400 ppm by May 2013.
   
   "This is the first time in human history our planet's atmosphere has had more than 415ppm CO2," Holthaus said in a widely shared tweet.
   
   During the Pliocene Epoch, some 3 million years ago, when global temperatures were estimated 2-3 degrees Celsius warmer than today, CO2 levels are believed to have topped out somewhere between 310 to 400 ppm.
   
   At that time, the Arctic was covered in trees, not ice, and summer temperatures in the far north are believed to have reached around 15C (60F). Global sea levels during the Pliocene were thought to be a whopping 25 meters (82 feet) higher than today, if not higher.
   
   Do you think there'll be any serious conversation, and more important legislation and action soon enough?

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   IslandBitesposted 6 years ago

   The release of CO2 and other greenhouse gases has already led to a 1C rise in global temperatures, and we are likely locked in for a further rise, if more immediate action is not taken by the world's governments.
   
   Last year’s report by the United Nations’ scientific body the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases we are still putting into the atmosphere means we are currently on track to exceed 1.5C of warming between 2030 and 2052 if temperatures continue to increase at the current rate, and by 3C by the end of the century.
   
   Once we hit 2C warming, the report said the world will become a profoundly different place.
   
   
   

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   Castlepalomaposted 6 years ago

   If we get rid of mankind the other earthlings have a very good chance.

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