Global CO2 Levels Reach 2-million Year High, Emissions Officially Exceed Safe Global Limit
Carbon dioxide (CO2) has surpassed the 400 ppm milestone, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Wednesday. The accepted concentration that will keep our planet within the range of habitability is 350 parts per million (ppm).
"It was only a matter of time that we would average 400 parts per million globally," Pieter Tans, lead scientist of NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, said in a statement. "We first reported 400 ppm when all of our Arctic sites reached that value in the spring of 2012. In 2013 the record at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory first crossed the 400 ppm threshold. Reaching 400 parts per million as a global average is a significant milestone."
"This marks the fact that humans burning fossil fuels have caused global carbon dioxide concentrations to rise more than 120 parts per million since pre-industrial times," he added. "Half of that rise has occurred since 1980."
The conclusion is based on the estimates of air samples taken from 40 global sites including the shores of remote islands.
"We choose to sample at these sites because the atmosphere itself serves to average out gas concentrations that are being affected by human and natural forces. At these remote sites we get a better global average," noted Ed Dlugokencky, the NOAA scientist who manages the global network.
NOAA data also suggested that the average growth rate of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere from 2012-2014 was 2.25 ppm per year - highest ever recorded over three consecutive years.
According to experts, reversing the trend is not likely. In order to slow the rise of atmospheric CO2, fossil fuel emissions would need to decrease 80% almost immediately. Obviously, given the modern world's dependence on technology and global transportation, it is simply not feasible to cut out that much energy for so many people. This leaves the planet in a precarious situation, Slate noted.
