New CO2 Record
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a level 50% higher than at the dawn of the industrial age.
The U.S. agency NOAA says the average CO2 level during May was 419.13 parts per million (ppm). That’s 1.82 ppm higher than last May. The level is also 120 ppm higher than back when the greenhouse gas was relatively stable without the impact of the polluting fuels that have driven the global economy since the 1700s.
“We are adding roughly 40 billion metric tons of CO2 pollution to the atmosphere per year,” said Pieter Tans of NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory. “That is a mountain of carbon that we dig up out of the Earth, burn and release into the atmosphere as CO2 — year after year.”
Tropical Mediterranean
Global heating is said to be turning the Mediterranean into a tropical sea, with native species driven out by some of the 1,000 more exotic ones that have adapted to the warmer waters.
The Italian branch of the World Wildlife Fund says the trend will have damaging consequences for fisheries, tourism and what seafood is on the menu.
Maritime director of the branch Giulia Prato said in a report: “Climate change is not a problem of the future; it is a reality that scientists, fishermen, divers, coastal communities and tourists are already experiencing today.”
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