[ad_1]
- The World Weather Organization (WMO) has daunted hopes for a breather for the climate in the wake of the corona pandemic.
- The scope of climate-detrimental emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) has decreased this year. The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere changes natural fluctuations that are less common than each year.
In 2019 and 2020, the CO2 concentration continued to rise, according to the report. In 2019, the world average passed the 410 ppm (particles per million) mark for the first time since the beginning of industrialization in 1750. The 400 ppm mark was not broken until 2015.
Specifically, the CO2 concentration last year was 410.5 ppm, after 407.9 and 405.5 ppm in the previous two years. CO2 is created through the burning of coal, oil and gas, cement production and other industrial processes, as well as deforestation.
“We have to flatten the curve in a sustainable way”
“The last time the Earth experienced a similar concentration of CO2 was between three and five million years ago,” said WMO Secretary General Petteri Taalas. Researchers can draw conclusions about the condition so long ago by drilling ice into ancient air bubbles and analyzing fossils. “At that time, the temperature was two to three degrees and the sea level was ten to 20 meters higher. But 7.7 billion people did not live on earth. “
To limit warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world must become climate neutral by 2050, Taalas said. The reversal of the trend in CO2 emissions should start in five years. Oil, gas and coal should be replaced as energy sources by wind, hydro and solar energy. Perhaps more nuclear power plants should also be built, Taalas said.
The emissions reduction in 2020 is only “a small dent” in the upward curve. “We have to sustainably flatten the curve,” Taalas said, based on the phrase epidemiologists often use in relation to coronavirus infections.
Little decrease in concentration in the atmosphere.
It is not yet clear how much emissions will be reduced in 2020, according to the WMO. At a time when several key countries were locked in by the crown at the same time, daily emissions are likely to have been around 17 percent below the pre-pandemic level. Preliminary estimates assumed a decrease from 4.2 to 7.5 percent. This would reduce the concentration in the atmosphere by values between 0.08 and 0.23 ppm. Natural variations, such as how well CO2 is absorbed by vegetation in a year, would be around 1 ppm.
The greenhouse gas bulletin gives an average value of the concentration in the atmosphere of more than 100 measuring stations. Individual stations had already registered higher values for 2020 than in the previous year. The station at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, for example, measured 411.29 ppm in September, compared to 408.54 last year. The Cape Grim station in Tasmania off the coast of Australia measured 410.8 ppm, down from 408.58 last year.
