CO2

Atmospheric CO2 Increasing Ten Times Faster Than In Last 50,000 Years

May 15, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! Carbon Dioxide, climate crisis, CO2, Environment

Carbon dioxide is increasing in the atmosphere 10 times faster than it has in the last 50,000 years, according to a new study led by researchers from University of St. Andrews and Oregon State University. The findings shed light on periods of abrupt climate change in the planet’s history while offering new understanding of the impacts of today’s climate crisis. “Studying the past teaches us how today is different. The rate of CO2 change today really is unprecedented,” said Kathleen Wendt, lead author of the study and an Oregon State University assistant professor in the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS), in a press release from University of St. Andrews.

Vast Majority Of Global CO2 Emissions Tied To Just 57 Entities

April 7, 2024 Joe Fassler, DeSmog. Educate! Carbon emissions, CO2, Energy, Fossil Fuels, Report

Since the Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, a small number of fossil fuel entities — just 57 corporate and state producers — have been responsible for 80 percent of planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. And a majority of those actors have only expanded production in the intervening years. That’s according to a new report released today by InfluenceMap detailing its Carbon Majors project, an influential database of fossil fuel production data. The database analyzes the individual carbon emissions of 122 “carbon majors” — publicly owned corporations, nation states, and state-owned entities — that, together, are responsible for more than 70 percent of fossil fuel and cement emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Switching To Biodegradable Plastics Could Slash CO2 Emissions

February 24, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Create! Biodegradable, Biodigestion, CO2, Environment, Plastics, pollution

Plastic pollution is one of the biggest global threats to the environment. Not only does it produce an enormous amount of waste, it breaks down to become the ubiquitous microplastics that contaminate drinking water, food and even the human body, while its production contributes to global heating. A new study, “Replacing Traditional Plastics with Biodegradable Plastics: Impact on Carbon Emissions,” has found that using biodegradable alternatives to replace traditional plastic products would lead to a substantial reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

CO2 Just Hit An All-Time Record. But That’s Not The Worst Of It.

June 7, 2019 By Mark Kaufman, Mashable.com Educate! Climate Change, CO2, Global Warming

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Tuesday that the average carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere during May rounded to 414.8 parts per million, or ppm — the highest monthly number on record and the peak of 2019. While Earth's CO2 trend has been skyrocketing overall — compared to both geologic and historic levels — each year the potent greenhouse gas wavers down during the warm growing season, when flourishing trees and plants in the Northern Hemisphere temporarily soak up CO2 from the air (this ever-rising, though saw-like line is called the Keeling Curve).

CO2 Levels Hit 415 PPM For First Time In 3 Million+ Years

May 13, 2019 By Jon Queally, Commondreams.org Educate! Climate Change, CO2, Environment

Atmospheric levels of carbon registered 415 parts per million over the weekend at one of the world's key measuring stations, a concentration level researchers say has not existed in more than 3 million years – before the dawn of human history. Taken at the Mauno Loa Observatory in Hawaii by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the measure continues the upward trend of atmospheric carbon concentration that lies at the heart of the global warming and climate crisis...

Capturing CO2 From Air: To Keep Global Warming Under 1.5°C, Emissions Must Go Negative, IPCC Says

October 13, 2018 Sabrina Shankman, Insideclimatenews.org Strategize! CO2, emission, Global Warming

The UN's latest global warming report made it clear that if the world is to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, society urgently needs to move away from fossil fuels completely. But to keep the planet from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the report says, we'll also have to figure out how to undo some of the damage that's already been done. "Given our current knowledge, we can't get to 1.5 degrees without removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it," said Kelly Levin, a senior associate at the World Resources Institute. With 1.5°C of warming just around the corner, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considered several solutions for removing CO2 from the air—some as simple as planting more trees...

We Can Pull CO2 From Air, But It’s No Silver Bullet For Climate Change

February 8, 2018 Sabrina Shankman, Insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, Climate Science, CO2, Technology

While technologies are being developed that can remove carbon dioxide from the air, they aren't yet feasible on the scale needed to slow global warming, Europe's national science academies warn in a new report. A wide array of technologies—from land management to ocean fertilization to capturing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it—are in various stages of testing and use, but according to the European Academies' Science Advisory Council, climate scientists and policymakers are being "seriously over-optimistic" about how much these approaches can help deal with the global warming crisis. In recent years, climate experts have suggested that it's not enough to just decrease the amount of greenhouse gases emitted.

Trump’s Climate Cuts Could Result In Half-Billion Extra Tons Of CO2 In The Air

April 27, 2017 Marianne Lavelle, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Climate Change, CO2, Trump Administration

By Marianne Lavelle for Inside Climate News - President Donald Trump's planned climate change policies could lead to an extra half a billion tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2025, according to a new analysis. That is equal to the annual electricity emissions of 60 percent of U.S. homes. Climate Advisers, a Washington consultancy, predicts that U.S. carbon emissions, which have been falling, will begin to flatten or increase by 2020 if the Trump administration succeeds in repealing the Clean Power Plan and other Obama-era regulations. In other words, decisions made today will have a delayed effect—but a prolonged one. "We found that the 'Trump Effect' really begins to bite into the U.S. emissions trajectory in 2025—since many of the factors influencing today's emissions trajectory can't be reversed quickly," the report said. The analysis assumes that some regulations are more vulnerable than others to rollbacks. The Clean Power Plan to curb carbon emissions from power plants, methane rules covering the oil and gas industry and a handful of efficiency regulations are "highly vulnerable" in the consulting firm's view, either because they're high profile or because they haven't been fully implemented.

Historic Shrinking Of Antarctic Ice Sheet Linked To CO2 Spike

October 18, 2016 Stacy Morford, www.ldeo.columbia.edu Educate! Antarctica, Carbon Dioxide, CO2

By Stacy Morford for LDEO - Twenty-three million years ago, the Antarctic Ice Sheet began to shrink, going from an expanse larger than today’s to one about half its modern size. Computer models suggested a spike in carbon dioxide levels as the cause, but the evidence was elusive – until now. Ancient fossilized leaves retrieved from a lake bed in New Zealand now show for the first time that carbon dioxide levels increased dramatically over a relatively short period of time as the ice sheet began to deteriorate.

Daily movement news and resources