Earth's carbon dioxide levels highest in 3 million years

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The good news is that I am seeing a significant increase in public concern and action. I have joined several , basically, "Go Green" organizations and now, I am getting more information about what is happening politically. Awareness is rising, action is being taken. It may seem like baby steps at the moment, but it's light years compared to several years ago.

 

 

Carbon dioxide – the gas scientists say is most responsible for global warming – has reached levels in our atmosphere not seen in 3 million years, scientists announced this week in a new study.

At that time, sea levels were as much as 65 feet higher than they are now, Greenland was mostly green and Antarctica had trees.

“It seems we’re now pushing our home planet beyond any climatic conditions experienced during the entire current geological period, the Quaternary,” said study lead author Matteo Willeit of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “A period that started almost 3 million years ago and saw human civilization beginning only 11,000 years ago. So, the modern climate change we see is big, really big; even by standards of Earth history.”.........https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/earths-carbon-dioxide-levels-highest-in-3-million-years-study-says/ar-BBVCFVQ?ocid=U508DHP

 

This is not going away.

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Over the weekend, the climate system sounded simultaneous alarms. Near the entrance to the Arctic Ocean in northwest Russia, the temperature surged to 84 degrees Fahrenheit (29 Celsius).............Saturday’s carbon dioxide measurement of 415 parts per million at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory is the highest in at least 800,000 years and probably over 3 million years. Carbon dioxide levels have risen by nearly 50 percent since the Industrial Revolution.....In Greenland, for example, the ice sheet’s melt season began about a month early. In Alaska, several rivers saw winter ice break up on their earliest dates on record.

Across the Arctic overall, the extent of sea ice has hovered near a record low for weeks.

....https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2019/02/06/undeniable-warming-planets-hottest-five-years-record-five-images/?utm_term=.83e48b887840......

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Authorities declared an environmental emergency on Tuesday for metropolitan Mexico City, one of the world's most populous megalopolises, as smoke from nearby wildfires pushed pollution to levels deemed potentially harmful to human health. Fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 hit 158 micrograms per cubic meter of air at the Nezahualcoyotl measuring station at 5 a.m. The World Health Organization recommends a daily mean air quality guideline below 25.

Annual averages above that amount are associated with higher long-term mortality risks. The world's most polluted capital city, New Delhi, has an annual average of 113.5.

Mexico City's air, once infamously lethal, saw a steady improvement through the late 1990s. In recent years, there have been renewed signs of deterioration. ....https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/mexico-city-declares-environment-emergency-as-fires-hurt-air-quality/ar-AABmo4g?ocid=U508DHP

[papasmurfbell]

We can grow some great giant bugs from a prehistoric time.

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This disaster was not brought on by global warming but it gives a good picture of the future in many countries if we go past the tipping point....

 

 

MARACAIBO, Venezuela — Zimbabwe’s collapse under Robert Mugabe. The fall of the Soviet Union. Cuba’s disastrous unraveling in the 1990s.

The crumbling of Venezuela’s economy has now outpaced them all.

Venezuela’s fall is the single largest economic collapse outside of war in at least 45 years, economists say.............As the country’s economy plummeted, armed gangs took control of entire towns, public services collapsed and the purchasing power of most Venezuelans has been reduced to a couple of kilograms of flour a month.

In markets, butchers hit by regular blackouts jostle to sell decomposing stock by sunset. Former laborers scavenge through garbage piles for leftovers and recyclable plastic. Dejected retailers make dozens of trips to the bank in hopes of depositing several pounds’ worth of bills made worthless by hyperinflation.....https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/venezuelas-collapse-is-the-worst-outside-of-war-in-decades-economists-say/ar-AABvB3S?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=U508DHP

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“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” —Sir Robert Swan