Carbon Dioxide In Atmosphere
Large chunk of global emissions comes from greenhouse gases and burning fuels, most electricity is produced by using these greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases, partially one of the most crucial ones; a gas that absorbs and radiates heat unlike oxygen and nitrogen. Without carbon dioxide, earth's natural greenhouse effect would be weak enough for our planet to freeze, meaning carbon dioxide plays a huge role to balance the earth. This includes the fact of too much release of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leading to the warming of earth on which we say global warming. Another reason of why carbon dioxide is relevant in our planet is, it dissolves into the ocean and reacts with the water molecules, producing carbonic acid and lowering oceans pH’s (raising its acidity) Since the start of industrial Revolution (1750s) the pH on ocean’s surface water dropped down from 8.21 to 8.10 (higher you go is basic, lower you go is acidic with 7 being neutral)This drop is called ocean acidification.
The first increase of carbon dioxide has started naturally in our atmosphere where it periodically warmed earth's temperature with the warm episodes called (interglacials) beginning from the increase of sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere due to variations of earth orbit around the sun's axis of rotation, revolving morley due to human activity in the late 1700s.
If we look into the data from 2020 CO2 usage of human activities (electricity, product of car gases etc.) concentration in the atmosphere had risen to 48% above its pre-industrial level (before 1750).
Based on an Annual report from NOAA'S Global Monitoring Lab, global carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (atmospheric carbon dioxide) was 419.3 per million (ppm) in 2023.
The increase between 2022 data and 2023 data is approximately 2.8ppm making it the 12th year in a row of atmospheric carbon dioxide increase more than 2 ppm. The reason for increasing carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is largely due to the burning of fossil fuels for transportations and electricity, leading to exceeding the limit of natural sink (atmosphere naturally cleaning the greenhouse gases) can remove. Therefore each year the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide rises faster.
In the 1960s, the rate of global rise of carbon dioxide per year was around 0.8(+,-) to 0.1 ppm, in the 2010s reaching 2.4 ppm per year. The annual rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 60 years is about 100 times faster than natural increases.
