Carbon dioxide reaches record high in Earth's atmosphere, scientists report

https://news.yahoo.com/carbon-dioxide-reaches-record-high-183149500.html

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Carbon dioxide reaches record high in Earth's atmosphere

Doyle Rice, USA TODAY
,USA TODAY•November 25, 2019

Carbon dioxide – the greenhouse gas most responsible for global warming – reached an all-time high in Earth's atmosphere in 2018, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced Monday.

“There is no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline, in greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere despite all the commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement.

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The burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane into Earth's atmosphere and oceans. The extra greenhouse gases have caused the planet's temperatures to rise to levels that cannot be explained by natural factors, scientists report.

In the past 20 years, the world's temperature has risen about two-thirds of a degree Fahrenheit, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

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In a statement, the WMO said this continuing long-term trend of rising carbon dioxide means that future generations will be confronted with increasingly severe impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures, more extreme weather, water stress, sea level rise and disruption to marine and land ecosystems.

“It is worth recalling that the last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of carbon dioxide was 3-5 million years ago," Taalas said. Back then, he said the Earth's temperature was as much as 5 degrees warmer and sea levels were as much as 65 feet higher than they are now.

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