14 DAY TRIAL // The rising concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are generally considered to be the main cause of global warming and climate change, with numerous studies linking the two directly. Still, there are those who refuse to listen to reason and science, and who believe that the levels of CO2 in the air are “normal” for our planet. A new scientific research, based on the most recent and accurate model of the compound's history on Earth, shows that we are at an all time high, and could also provide new insight into the planet's warming and cooling cycles.
According to the paper, drops in carbon dioxide concentrations are not responsible for the onset of ice ages, starting 850,000 years ago. This is but the latest study to come to this conclusion, which has been gaining support in the international scientific community for the past few years. However, the research concluded that higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere always led to warming periods. The scientists also showed that the amount of CO2 in the air at the moment was the largest in the last 2.1 million years.
While, on average, the level of carbon was somewhere around 280 parts per million (ppm), at this point it's almost at 385 ppm, and it continues to rise annually. Previous studies have shown that, when the concentrations pass the 400-450-ppm mark, the situation on the planet will become close to desperate, with many animal species going extinct, and temperatures increasing considerably. Glaciers will melt, and the shorelines will rearrange, scientists say to whoever has ears to listen. Despite this serious threat, authorities in most countries continue to invoke childish reasons to avoid action on climate change.
“Previous studies indicated that CO2 did not change much over the past 20 million years, but the resolution wasn't high enough to be definitive. This study tells us that CO2 was not the main trigger, though our data continues to suggest that greenhouse gases and global climate are intimately linked,” Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Geochemist Barbel Honisch, the main researcher for the new study, explains. A paper detailing the finds appears in the June 19th issue of the journal Science.
“We know from looking at much older climate records that large and rapid increase in CO2 in the past, (about 55 million years ago) caused large extinction in bottom-dwelling ocean creatures, and dissolved a lot of shells as the ocean became acidic. We're heading in that direction now,” Pennsylvania State University Glaciologist Richard Alley says, quoted by ScienceDaily. He has not been involved directly in the new research.