Scientists recorded record levels of carbon dioxide and methane

Scientists recorded record levels of carbon dioxide and methane in the air

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In 2023, the level of gases that “retain” heat in the atmospheric air and increase the greenhouse effect grew at a record-breaking pace.

About this informs in its report, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), writes The Associated Press.

By data According to the International Energy Agency, the impact of methane on the increase in global temperature reached about 30%, and carbon dioxide was almost twice as much.

Although the increase in carbon dioxide emissions last year was not as rapid as in 2014 and 2015, the total was the largest in 65 years of monitoring.

In 2023, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning and cement production also hit an all-time high of 36.8 billion metric tons. This amount is twice as high as it was 40 years ago.

Xin Lindsay Lan, a University of Colorado and NOAA scientist, says about half of what comes out of smokestacks and exhaust pipes is temporarily absorbed and stored by trees and the ocean, preventing it from entering the atmosphere.

Only in the last five years, the level of methane in the air has increased by 3% and is already 160% of the pre-industrial level. This indicates that the rate of its formation is faster than that of carbon dioxide.

Methane traps about 28 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. However, it persists in the atmosphere for about a decade, not centuries or thousands of years, as is the case with carbon dioxide.

Observations of specific isotopes of methane in the air show that microbes are responsible for most of the rise in methane levels. This suggests that the source of high methane emissions is specifically wetlands and possibly agriculture and landfills, says Xin Lindsay Lan.

“Fossil fuel pollution is warming natural systems like wetlands and permafrost. As these ecosystems heat up, they release even more greenhouse gases,” – says Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson.

We remind you that scientists have established that in 30 years Greenland lost more than 28 thousand km² of ice.

Anna Kovalenko, “UP. Life”