In 2022, carbon dioxide is higher than it has been in millions of years. Why this matters? -

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Human activity is not only barrelling us toward global warming quicker but is also making it harder for natural processes to offset the amount of carbon we are releasing into the atmosphere.

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The heat-trapping carbon dioxide that we see in the atmosphere today has not reached such levels in millions of years. The greenhouse gas which raises the planet’s surface temperatures had been at about the same level 4.1 to 4.5 million years ago in the Pliocene era.

The global temperature in those prehistoric times had risen to a life-endangering 7 degrees Celsius, that is, 3.9 degrees hotter than today.

The earth has gone through cycles of heating and cooling before but what alarms scientists today is that human activity has brought us to the Pliocene milestone much faster – in just about a hundred years while the ancient warming happened over tens of thousands of years.

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said its long-time monitoring station at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, averaged 421 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide for the month of May. CO2 hits its yearly high this summer month as plants in the northern hemisphere suck more of the gas as they grow. Much of the carbon dioxide released in the atmosphere (10 billion metric tons each year) gets drawn down by the oceans and plants.

The last time the planet was so hot due to a profusion of gases that capture heat, sea levels were 5 to 25 meters higher than now. If, as data suggests, we are speeding to such a reality soon, then humans would experience such conditions for the first time since their evolution. Coastlines would dramatically change, and extreme weather events would tragically wipe out lives and livelihoods. The effects of rising temperatures are already manifesting every year.

Carbon dioxide levels in the 19^th century were about two-thirds of today’s 421 ppm. It has become increasingly clear that human activity has significantly added to natural increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

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World leaders are talking about arresting the temperature rise and cutting emissions, but there appears to be no real change in the data. Global temperatures have risen by roughly 1 degree Celsius since the pre-industrial era – that may seem small but it is not. Consider the size of the earth and the oceans (where much of the heat is absorbed), and then you have an idea about the amount of energy it would be required to raise temperatures of such a vast body by even 1 degree Celsius. The enormous amount of heat then changes weather patterns by affecting evaporation, rain clouds formation, wind flow and intensity, and so on.

Some activists and scientists want a level of 350 ppm of carbon dioxide but the earth crossed the threshold of 400 ppm in 2013 and has been adding to the carbon emission every single year.

Scientists claim we are now in the “Anthropocene” epoch, a period of time where human beings are having major and lasting impacts on the planet.

The greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and certain other gases last for a long time in the atmosphere – hanging there much like a blanket over the earth.

The last time carbon dioxide levels spiked on earth it happened gradually and raised temperatures slowly. The carbon may have been released by an increased level of volcanic activity over thousands of years. The accumulated carbon, which has a long lifetime, stayed in the air and combined with greater levels of water vapour, which is the most abundant greenhouse gas, and triggered the earth’s last “natural” global warming.

But as is the course of most natural phenomena, the resilient earth reverted to hospitable conditions over centuries. Human activity is not only accelerating us toward global warming quicker but is also making it harder for natural processes to offset the amount of carbon we are releasing into the atmosphere.

In 2020, when economic activity halted for weeks and months, there was a cut in emissions but the amount was negligible considering the amount of carbon dioxide that is pumped each year and persists in the atmosphere for years.

Speaking to the Associated Press, climate scientist Andrea Dutton, said, “Watching these incremental but persistent increases in CO2 year-to-year is much like watching a train barrel down the track towards you in slow motion. It’s terrifying. If we stay on the track with a plan to jump out of the way at the last minute, we may die of heat stroke out on the tracks before it even gets to us.”

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