2016 saw record speed rise CO2 levels globally.

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Meeshika Sharma
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The World Meteorological Organization found that once again, CO2 levels are on the rise.The United Nations weather agency has warned that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere increased at record-breaking speed last year.WMO says carbon pollution has touched 800,000 year record in 2016. publive-image

The latest WMO Greenhouse Gas Bulletin released Monday says a strong El Nino and human activity contributed to an increase of CO2 concentrations to 403.3 parts per million last year, up from 400 in 2015.

Saying that we are actually moving in the wrong direction, World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas says rapid cuts to CO2 and other greenhouse gases are needed to avoid "dangerous temperature increases" by 2100 that would far surpass targets set in the Paris climate accord.

The record increase of 3.3 parts per million of CO2 was due partly to the strong El Nino in 2015 and 2016, which triggered droughts in tropical regions and curbed the ability of forests to absorb the gas, according to WMO. CO2 also comes from burning of fossil fuels for energy and from deforestation for farming and building.

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publive-imageAccording to the geological data that’s gathered from ice cores in Greenland and Antarctica, CO2 concentrations were lower than 280 parts per million for the last 800,000 years and have risen since the industrial revolution.Over the past 70 years, says the report, the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere is nearly 100 times larger than it was at the end of the last ice age.

According to experts, the last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was three to five million years ago, in the mid-Pliocene era. The climate then was 2-3C warmer, and sea levels were 10-20m higher due to the melting of Greenland and the West Antarctic ice sheets.

Hoping that it will contribute to debate at a major climate conference in Bonn, Germany, starting next week, WMO says that the report breaks ground by showing the "global picture" on carbon levels.

 

 

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