CO2 •

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

Carbon dioxide emissions might become history.

It seems like the work of scientists regarding the carbon dioxide emissions has paid off. The Hellisheidi geothermal power plant close to Reykjavik, Iceland, provided a team of experts with the equipment needed to perform such an experiment.

The team was able to pump plant’s volcanic gasses rich in carbon dioxide into basalt formations deep underground. After mixing these gasses with water, the carbon dioxide was chemically solidified. It is the first time in history when an electric power plant has managed to prevent carbon dioxide emissions from being released in the air.

According to Martin Stute, co-author of the study and hydrologist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York, this process is a scientific breakthrough and a significant step towards safe storage of the carbon dioxide emissions.

It is worth mentioning that basalt is a volcanic rock consisting of around 70 percent of the entire earth’s surface. However, when it gets into contact with water and carbon dioxide, a chemical reaction converts the gas to a solid rock with a chalk appearance.

It only took two years for scientists to make this solution effective during this project, called CarbFix. After the first successful attempt, even scientists were surprised by the fantastic results.

Nevertheless, some experts believe that storing carbon dioxide underground might have severe consequences as it can leak into the atmosphere through earth fissures or worse, directly explode, leading to a climate cataclysm.

Therefore, the team of scientists came up with the idea of converting carbon dioxide emissions into stone. By doing this, the carbon dioxide will be safely contained.

However, further research is needed as the researchers want to understand the way different types of basalt affect the solidifying process of the carbon dioxide. Plus, they do not know yet how this process would be affected if they replaced fresh water with readily available saltwater.

Another positive aspect is the fact that the solidification process is very fast, preventing the carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere. If scientists decide that this process is 100% percent safe, then the face of the world will be changed as carbon dioxide emissions will be captured and stored in time. In other words, air pollution will become history.

Image Source: Wikipedia

CO2 Levels Hit Record Concentrations

Carbon Emissions Could Be Converted To Stone

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