The CO2 concentration even peaked before the first month of 2020. It is sad that every year we record a new record for the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The Mauna Loa Observatory recently revealed that CO2 emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere have reached 415.79 parts per million (ppm). Not surprisingly, CO2 levels are consistently higher every day. But the latest published figures show that CO2 emissions have reached an all-time record.
CO2 in the atmosphere always fluctuates up and down over the course of a year. Specifically, the amount of CO2 increases from autumn to spring, when plants decay, and then gradually decreases in summer as plants grow and suck CO2 from the atmosphere.
This natural cycle has existed for millions of years and creates a balance for the Earth’s atmosphere. Thanks to this cycle, humans can live peacefully with nature. But that’s when humans haven’t started emitting CO2. At present, the equilibrium is still maintained, but it is showing signs of changing for the worse as CO2 emissions are increasing steadily year by year.
The record for monthly CO2 concentrations usually occurs around March or April, although last year it fell in February due to human burning of fossil fuels.
Scientists have long had a basis for assessing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere based on ice cores. And the biggest record ever recorded was 800,000 years ago, when humans started walking on Earth. At that time, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was just below 280ppm on average.
Things started to change rapidly in the industrial age as people started burning more fossil fuels. Although the risks related to CO2 have been warned for a long time, CO2 emissions continue to increase rapidly year by year. As long as humans still emit CO2, new milestones will continue to appear.
Just in May 2019, the average CO2 concentration in the atmosphere surpassed 415ppm for the first time. Back in 2015, the number never crossed 400ppm.
The amount of CO2 stored in the atmosphere, creating a giant shield, preventing radiant heat from escaping from the Earth. This curtain inadvertently “burns” the temperature of the entire planet, leading to the greenhouse effect and extreme weather phenomena such as heat waves, wildfires, storms and floods. CO2 also worsens the quality of the air we breathe every day.
Humanity is gradually approaching the limit of the planet’s tolerance, researchers warn. Once things get out of control, global warming will disrupt the Earth’s climate system. More dangerously, when the ice in the Arctic and Antarctic melts, it will raise sea levels by more than 3m, threatening the survival of coastal lands.
And when extreme weather events such as forest fires, droughts and floods occur more often. As a result, wildfires further increase CO2 emissions into the atmosphere and exacerbate the climate crisis. All of the above factors combined with the increasing amount of CO2 emissions by humans will directly destroy life on Earth.
Is it time to change? The answer is that it is never too late if all countries promptly switch to a green economic model, towards gradually reducing dependence and eliminating fossil fuels, the leading cause of CO2 emissions.