Worldwide levels of the greenhouse gas that plays the biggest role in global warming have reached their highest level in almost 2 million years — an amount never before encountered by humans, US scientists said on Friday.
Carbon dioxide was measured at 400 parts per million (ppm) on Thursday at the oldest monitoring station in Hawaii, which sets the global benchmark.
The number 400 has been anticipated by climate scientists and environmental activists for years as a notable indicator, in part because it is a round number.
“What we see today is 100 percent due to human activity,” said Pieter Tans, a senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The burning of fossil fuels has caused the overwhelming bulk of the manmade increase in carbon in the air, scientists say.
At the end of the Ice Age, it took 7,000 years for carbon dioxide levels to rise by 80ppm, Tans said.
Because of the burning of fossil fuels, carbon dioxide levels have gone up by the same amount in just 55 years.
The speed of the change is the big worry, Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said. If carbon dioxide levels go up 100ppm over thousands or millions of years, plants and animals can adapt — but that cannot be done at the speed it is now happening.
The last time the worldwide carbon level was probably this high was about 2 million years ago, Tans said. That was during the Pleistocene Era.
“It was much warmer than it is today,” Tans said. “There were forests in Greenland. Sea level was higher, between 10 and 20 meters.”
Other scientists say it may have been 10 million years since Earth last encountered this level of carbon dioxide. The first modern humans only appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
When measurements were first taken in 1958, carbon dioxide was measured at 315ppm. Levels are now growing about 2ppm per year. That is 100 times faster than at the end of the Ice Age.
Before the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels were about 280ppm, and they were closer to 200ppm during the Ice Age, which is when sea levels shrank and polar places went from green to icy.
Some scientists and environmental groups promote 350ppm as a safe level for carbon dioxide, but scientists acknowledge they do not really know what levels would stop the effects of global warming.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique