Global carbon dioxide levels might have passed the threshold of the tipping point.
According to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from the University of California San Diego, the Earth’s atmosphere has passed the critical point of no return in carbon dioxide levels. It has hit a record high of 400 parts per million, according to the institution that has been monitoring the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii since 1958 .
The month of September was supposed to witness a drop in CO2 levels, as in previous years, caused by the transition from summer to fall. However, the levels remained consistently over 400 ppm, also over the so called red line.
Carbon dioxide is an industrial gas byproduct, both odorless and colorless, leaving nothing to identify its presence. It is also the gas human produce while breathing, and it accounts to over 63% of the global atmospheric pollution.
To compare, the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere during the industrial revolution in the 1800s were 280 ppm. In fact, they haven’t been as high as today in some 4.5 million years, when the levels crossed 415 ppm.
The constant mounting of greenhouse gasses has given us the hottest year ever recorded. This year, every month was recorded higher in average temperatures than years before. The first six months of the year, the average global temperature was 1.3 Celsius above the pre-industrial average.
Scientists believe that by 2050, people will witness some of most drastic, and maybe even most violent, climate changes in modern history. We always thought that we had time to find a solution, but it seems like it is too late.
