The world has just hit another new record for heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air, despite decreased emissions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Measurements of carbon dioxide averaged as much as 17 % in April, and it was a slight decline. The new results are worrying. Here is what you should know.
The World vs. the Carbon Dioxide
The world reached another new record high for heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air. Studies find that the carbon dioxide can stay in the atmosphere for centuries. So, a brief-term reduction of new carbon pollution doesn’t represent a full, happy scenario. It only shows how challenging it is, how and much we should work to bring the emissions down.
The recorded measurements go back to the 1950s. Carbon dioxide levels are now almost 100 parts/million higher than that period. Such a thing means that we have a 31 % increase in 60 years.
“The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is relentless, and this means the costs of climate change to humans and the planet continue to rise relentlessly,” explained Jonathan Overpeck, the environment dean of the University of Michigan.
The carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere were higher in the past, before humans, according to research. As for the levels of carbon dioxide measured in April, they were a little lower because the growing plants needed more heat-trapping gas, causing carbon dioxide values in the atmosphere to drop.
The Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) tracks the emissions produced from fossil fuel use in industrial and electricity generation processes. Its main goal is to prevent the carbon dioxide from reaching the air and can capture up to 90 % of the CO2 emitted.
Using the CCS with renewable biomass is among the only carbon abatement tech that can be utilized in a “carbon-negative” mode. The process has three parts: tracking and capturing the CO2, transporting it, and securely storing the emissions (underground or in deep saline aquifer formations).
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