There’s more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere than at any time in human history In February and March 2021, sensors at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii – which has tracked Earth’s atmospheric concentration of CO2 since the late 1950s – detected CO2 concentrations of more than 417 parts per million (ppm). Pre-industrial levels were 278 ppm, which means that humans are halfway to doubling the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere compared to the period between 1750 and 1800. CO2 concentrations fluctuate with the seasons, with the annual CO2 concentration for 2021 predicted to be 416.3 ppm, even taking into account a slight fall in emissions in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The last time Earth’s atmosphere contained this much CO2 was more than three million years ago, when sea levels were several metres higher and trees grew at the South Pole.
Extreme heat events have become more frequent and severe You only need to think of recent devastating wildfires in Australia, California or southern Europe to see that climate change is leading to more frequent and more severe hot weather events.The kind of extreme heat event that would have only happened on average once every ten years between 1850 and 1900 now likely occurs 2.8 times every ten years, and is likely to occur 4.1 times every ten years in a world that hits 1.5C of future warming. The same is true of once-in-every-50-years events. They’re now more likely to occur 4.8 times in 50 years, and in a post-1.5C world that will be 8.6 times every 50 years.
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