Atmospheric data gathered by the NASA satellite OCO-2 has revealed that certain tropical regions are responsible for an unprecedented spike in CO2 levels in 2015 and 2016
Credit: NASA
Since the Industrial Revolution in the early 1800s, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations have been steadily increasing, but 2015 and 2016 saw an unprecedented spike. A NASA study has now analyzed data gathered by the atmosphere-monitoring satellite, the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), over more than two years and pinpointed the cause: the El Nino weather effect caused certain tropical regions to release far more CO2 than they normally would.
Although there’s been some huge efforts to reduce the amount of CO2 produced through human activity, the amount of the gas pumped into the atmosphere has still increased by an average of 2 parts per million (about 4 gigatons of carbon) annually, in recent years. But 2015 and 2016 broke the trend with the largest spikes on record: up to 3 parts per million, amounting to 6.3 gigatons of carbon. Emissions from human activity stayed roughly […]
Have you forgotten your high school biology? Plants take in CO2 and break it down. The oxygen is released to the atmosphere and the carbon is used to make carbohydrates.
When I saw there was one comment I knew it had to be Steve. It seems no facts can alter your view on climate warming.
The natural world, the world of plants and phytoplankton, is rapidly been destroyed before they can feast on this too abundant food. Stephan has posted recent research that indicates too much co2 is damaging to plants as all of us have our optimal ranges. So much carbon is entering the atmosphere and so much of the natural world has been destroyed by man and nature (note recent wind, floods and fire) that we are being overwhelmed by this climate warming gas.
One scientist wrote that maybe we could drop all this name calling/blaming leading to total inaction by agreeing that we have entered a period of increasing “climate instability”. New term new meme now let’s get busy the life you save may be your own.
When you say “indicates” you may be talking about an interpretation of data. An assertion is not proof; it’s a logical fallacy. My understanding is that there have been times on the earth when CO2 was higher than it is now. Apparently those episodes did not kill off life on the planet.
Go to your local nursery from time to time and look at the flowering plants. If you do some background research on greenhouse growing you will find that they have been forced into blooming by increasing the CO2 content up to 1200 ppm.
The problem is that the global warming people have stopped talking about warming (why? no data?) and shifted to climate change, which is handy because it covers all bases. At the same time, they are proposing the same solution as when the brand was “global warming.” Why does that make sense?
It is obvious that the weather is changing for the worse, but after years of following this I have concluded that the science around solar activity and all phenomena related to it is a better explanation than human-generated CO2.
I will reiterate now that scientists have now found a correlation between solar activity and hurricanes, earthquakes, and other phenomenon which can all cause CO2 to go up. That is a fact. I must agree with Mr. Hovland, that there many ways to explain why CO2 is going up, although we should still try not to make it worse and disrupt the natural cycles of nature, and we should shift our power supply to solar and wind in order to do that.
Thanks to both of you for your feedback. I would still say that whether it is the sun, cosmic rays or co2/methane or over population maybe even that no one is at fault we are in for a rough ride on the only place we call home. Who can deny that the natural world is being damaged/destroyed so stop the arguing and clean up our mess.