Worldwide CO2 Level is Now 3.05ppm Higher


NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) has published a press release and it states that the worldwide CO2 level increased by 3.05ppm (parts per million) in 2015. The CO2 levels have been increasing higher than 2ppm per year, in the last four years.

The lead scientist of the Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, Pieter Tans, stated that the growth of CO2 levels is currently faster than in the past hundreds of thousands of years. He added that the increase can be considered as “explosive”, compared to the normal fluctuations of CO2 levels. Before the Industrial Revolution in 1800, the atmospheric SO2 levels were at 280ppm and 215 years later, it was 402.59 ppm. Tans said that it is about 200 times faster than the earlier increases. It is believed that the rapid increase is significantly attributed by a natural phenomenon called ENSO or El Nino Southern Oscillation.

When ENSO happens in a specific year, the seawater temperature of Pacific Ocean changes and it affects weather and precipitation around the world. Steady increases in worldwide CO2 levels are also often associated with higher energy needs and the burning of fossil fuels. This causes warming at the poles, sea level rise and more erratic weather patterns. Each of these effects amplifies one another, making bad outcomes to happen a lot faster. In the past 56 years, the increase in atmospheric CO2 level is the largest documented and within the past 800,000 years, it is the highest. Despite worldwide initiatives to curb CO2 emissions, we will continue to see higher increase in CO2 levels.

Written by News Staff.

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