Follow
CO2 levels reached a record concentration.
Based on the latest research, climate experts established that the CO2 levels caused by human activity would reach a high record this year due to an increase from El Niño.
Unfortunately, this growth will be the fastest ever recorded. Furthermore, the statistics showed that the CO2 concentrations will be over 400 parts per million (ppm) for the entire year. Despite the fact that carbon emissions have declined thanks to the efforts of many organizations around the world, these concentrations will remain this high for the next few decades compared to a human lifetime.
According to Richard Betts, lead author from the University of Exeter, carbon emissions kept rising every year because of industrial activities, but combined with the effect of this year’s El Niño event; the concentration increased 25 percent more compared to the last big El Niño event in 1997-1998.
El Niño is a phenomenon that changes the water surface temperature of the tropical Pacific Ocean. The results consist of dry and warm tropical ecosystems with reduced uptake of carbon and many forest wildfires.
Plants usually draw down CO2 during summer and release it back during autumn and winter. It means that the level of CO2 cannot suddenly drop off because this process is rather slow and progressive rather than fast.
Betts also underlined that CO2 levels in Mauna Loa are presently over 400 parts per million, and they were expected to decrease in September. Nevertheless, this is not going to happen due to many other factors influencing the carbon emissions level such as dry tropical areas and forest fires.
The 400 ppm level of CO2 means that there are 400 molecules of CO2 in the atmosphere for every one million molecules. Unfortunately, experts said that the carbon emissions are less likely to drop down soon. These numbers show what human ignorance is capable of causing on the world ecosystem.
Moreover, this situation is just one part of the severe consequences that came from the industry based on fossil fuels. Carbon emissions have been a problem for many decades. Nevertheless, the fact that people have not taken action sooner led to these unfortunate circumstances.
Hopefully, these CO2 levels will pinpoint the fact that we need to change our perspective regarding the world’s environment. Maybe from now on we will better preserve the ecosystem.
Image Source:Modo3
