Despite the global expectations of carbon dioxide levels reducing in the atmosphere due to the shutdown of industries during lockdowns, things aren’t seeming any good for the environment as the charts are only rising, and dreadfully, more than 2019’s records.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), who published the report on Monday, battered the hopes of people believing the lockdowns to atleast provide aid to the worsening climate and carbon dioxide situation.
According to the United Nations, the carbon dioxide emissions along with many other pollutants have indeed reduced through the methods adopted to stop the further spread of coronavirus. However, these measures of the industrial shutdown could not help the situation as the high concentrations of the greenhouse gases are still up there present in the atmosphere, rather trapped, which are pulling in the heat and consequently increasing the sea levels with extremities in weather contions.
The global Meteorological Organization said the change registered in CO2 levels that has rose due to the emissions brought in from over the years, is neither more than the usual yearly changes in the carbon cycle nor the amount of carbon which is consumed by the vegetations and water bodies.
In the initial reports, a “tiny blip” of 4.2%-7.5% has been indicated in the annual global emissions, which according to the WHO does not hold a greater effect on global warming when compared to the expected yearly fluctuation.
The body stated that the a reduction in the scale of emissions will not reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide level but rather increase it. Nevertheless, this growth will be a little slower than its usual pace, it added.
Patricia Espinosa, the climate change executive secretary of the UN, shared a video on social media while saying that the pandemic hasn’t paused the climate change process. If anything, it has only got worse, and the options of stopping this change are reducing by the day, she said.
The concentrations of major pollutants triggering the global warming causing extreme weather conditions in the world including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, were a part of the report formulated by the Geneva-headquartered body.
Carbon dioxide, which is released from the fumes of fossil fuels, registered a record high 410.5 ppm (parts per million) last year, the report said.
This year’s levels recorded are more than last year and infact, is more than the average obtained from the cumulative of the last 10 years.
Speaking about the 10ppm rise from 2015, WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said, “Such a rate of increase has never been seen in the history of our records.” He also called for a “sustained flattening of the curve (of emissions)”
Chief of MO’s atmospheric environment research, Oksana Tarasova said the changes observed during the last 4 years in regards to the rise of CO2 levels could be held against those noticed while the transition from ice age to a more temperate period occured. However, this change happened over a far longer duration of time involving no overtly disastrous role of humans.
“We humans did it without anything, just with our emissions, and we did it within four years,” he added.
