Physical Wellness
Greenhouse Gases Concentration in Atmosphere Touch Record High
Concentration of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide and methane due to excessive fossil fuel usage, recorded the highest increase in the last 20 years, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has warned.
According to a press release from WMO, the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere was142 % higher compared to pre-industrial times, in 2013, registering a new high since 1984. The organization warned that increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide would certainly deprive the planet of a future if nations did not act immediately. While methane concentration rose to 253% compared to pre-industrial times, nitrous oxide's concentration was pegged at 121% comparatively, in 2013.
"We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels," WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement.
Jarraud said human interventions have not made a dent in reduction of greenhouse gases concentrations, which are lower than actual emissions owing to the presence of carbon dioxide sinks in the form of oceans and forests.
However WMO's report also cautions that oceans' contribution to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions comes at a cost. Rise in ocean temperatures makes them acidic which among other side-effects affects the marine ecosystem the most.
"The total change of ocean acidity since pre-industrial (times)... is 25 percent, and 6 percent was done within the last 10 years," WMO scientific officer Oksana Tarasova told Reuters.
Guardian quoted Joanna Haigh, co-director of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and Environment, Imperial College London saying that immediate steps should be taken to control greenhouse gas concentrations which are increasing rapidly when they should be slowing down.
However even if big reductions, as big as an 80% fall, in emissions is achieved by 2050, the slightest of difference in global temperatures may not be visible until 2100.
Join the Conversation