New data released Monday showed atmospheric carbon dioxide reached a monthly average level of 419 parts per million in May, which is not only the maximum reading ever recorded since accurate measurements began 63 years ago but also the highest level the planet has experienced in over four million years.
“The solution is right before our eyes. Solar energy and wind are already cheaper than fossil fuels and they work at the scales that are required. If we take real action soon, we might still be able to avoid catastrophic climate change.” —Pieter Tans, NOAA
Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego working at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory in Hawaii said the May measurements—an increase from 417 parts per million (ppm) in May 2020—mean that “the atmospheric burden of CO2 is now comparable to where it was during the Pliocene Climatic Optimum, between 4.1 and 4.5 million years ago, when CO2 was close to, or above 400 ppm.”
“During that time, sea level was about 78 feet higher than today, the […]
With all the new windmills and solar projects one would not think the CO2 would still be going up, but facts are facts.
The transition to renewable energy has to be a national goal. It is a national security issue.
The deed is done the carbon in the atmosphere will not disappear for hundreds of years and methane emissions are increasing rapidly because of increasing temps. The feedback loops that pull carbon out of the air and hold the methane in check are broken and are not repairable in the short term, say an average human lifetime.
Still I’m more optimistic than ever that we earthlings will and are seeing the need for cooperation with an intensity only in the past seen in wartime. New energy sources absolutely and with that preparing for the worst results of sea level rise, floods, more storms, food shortages and climate refugees. Refugees as in internally displaced citizens will become a serious concern, think Hurricane Katrina more often in more places but then I have been accused of having a disaster mindset.