Page 12 - aruba-today-20220609

A12 SCIENCE
Thursday 9 June 2022

Sky high: Carbon dioxide levels in air

spike past milestone

more droughts, more large
storms and higher sea lev-
els.”
The slowdown from the
pandemic did cut global
carbon emissions a bit in
2020, but they rebounded
last year. Both changes
were small compared to
how much carbon diox-
ide is pumped into the at-
mosphere each year, es-
pecially considering that
carbon dioxide stays in the
atmosphere hundreds to a
A man wades into the ocean at sunset on June 22, 2021, in thousand years, Tans said.
Newport Beach, Calif. The world puts about 10 bil-
Associated Press lion metric tons of carbon
in the air each year, much
By SETH BORENSTEIN than a year ago, a slightly of it gets drawn down by
The amount of heat-trap- bigger jump than from May oceans and plants. That’s
ping carbon dioxide in the 2020 to May 2021. why May is the peak for
atmosphere has shot past “The world is trying to re- global carbon dioxide
a key milestone - more than duce emissions, and you emissions. Plants in the
50% higher than pre-indus- just don’t see it. In other northern hemisphere start
trial times - and is at levels words, if you’re measuring sucking up more carbon
not seen since millions of the atmosphere, you’re dioxide in the summer as
years ago when Earth was not seeing anything hap- they grow.
a hothouse ocean-inun- pening right now in terms NOAA said carbon dioxide
dated planet, federal sci- of change,” said NOAA cli- levels are now about the
entists announced Friday. mate scientist Pieter Tans, same as 4.1 to 4.5 million
The National Oceanic and who tracks global green- years ago in the Pliocene
Atmospheric Administra- house gas emissions for the era, when temperatures
tion said its long-time moni- agency. were 7 degrees (3.9 de-
toring station at Mauna Outside scientists said the grees Celsius) hotter and
Loa, Hawaii, averaged 421 numbers show a severe cli- sea levels were 16 to 82
parts per million of carbon mate change problem. feet (5 to 25 meters) higher
dioxide for the month of “Watching these incremen- than now. South Florida, for
May, which is when the tal but persistent increas- example, was completely
crucial greenhouse gas es in CO2 year-to-year is under water. These are
hits its yearly high. Before much like watching a train conditions that human civi-
the industrial revolution in barrel down the track to- lization has never known.
the late 19th century car- wards you in slow motion. The reason it was
bon dioxide levels were at It’s terrifying,” said Universi- much warmer and seas
280 parts per million, scien- ty of Wisconsin-Madison cli- were higher millions of
tists said, so humans have mate scientist Andrea Dut- years ago at the same car-
significantly changed the ton. “If we stay on the track bon dioxide level as now is
atmosphere. Some activ- with a plan to jump out of that in the past the natural
ists and scientists want a the way at the last minute, increase in carbon dioxide
level of 350 parts per mil- we may die of heat stroke levels was far more gradu-
lion. Industrial carbon di- out on the tracks before it al. With carbon sticking in
oxide emissions come from even gets to us.” the air hundreds of years,
the burning of coal, oil and University of Illinois climate temperatures heated up
gas. scientist Donald Wuebbles over longer periods of time
Levels of the gas continue said without cuts in carbon and stayed there. The Ant-
to rise, when they need to pollution “we will see ever arctic and Greenland ice
be falling, scientists say. This more damaging levels of sheets melted over time,
year’s carbon dioxide lev- climate change, more raising sea levels tremen-
el is nearly 1.9 ppm more heat waves, more flooding, dously and making Earth
darker and reflecting less
heat off the planet, Tans
and other scientists said.
Scientists at the Scripps
Institution of Oceanogra-
phy calculated levels a bit
differently based on time
and averaging, and put
the May average at 420.8
ppm, slightly lower than
NOAA’s figure.q