Today (or hereabouts) is a special day, but not one you should celebrate. For the first time ever – or at least for the first time in the last 800,000 years that we have good data from ice cores for – the concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere exceeded 400 ppm (monthly averaged readings).
That is Not a Good Thing. More CO2 means more heat trapped in our atmosphere, which will gradually drive up the surface temperature of our planet with unpleasant consequences, such as reduced crop yields, increased diseases and insects in more northerly countries, greater variability in our weather, rising sea levels leading to millions of displaced people...
As a number its nothing special of course, but when you look at it in perspective you appreciate how unusual it really is. Below is the historical CO2 record: the regular zigzags roughly every 100,000 years represent glacial periods, the last one starting around 120,000 years ago and ending about 10-20,000 years ago. Each glacial period was preceded by a sharp rise in CO2 and temperature, which then triggered the glaciation.
The vertical spike on the right hand side is what 400 ppm looks like. W-a-y outside the normal range. Hmm...
That is Not a Good Thing. More CO2 means more heat trapped in our atmosphere, which will gradually drive up the surface temperature of our planet with unpleasant consequences, such as reduced crop yields, increased diseases and insects in more northerly countries, greater variability in our weather, rising sea levels leading to millions of displaced people...
As a number its nothing special of course, but when you look at it in perspective you appreciate how unusual it really is. Below is the historical CO2 record: the regular zigzags roughly every 100,000 years represent glacial periods, the last one starting around 120,000 years ago and ending about 10-20,000 years ago. Each glacial period was preceded by a sharp rise in CO2 and temperature, which then triggered the glaciation.
The vertical spike on the right hand side is what 400 ppm looks like. W-a-y outside the normal range. Hmm...
Source : http://keelingcurve.ucsd.edu/
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