Climate crisis acute: CO2 values ​​climb incessantly-what now?

Climate crisis acute: CO2 values ​​climb incessantly-what now?

Genf, Schweiz - of dpa

28. October 2024, 10:03 am

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exhaust gases come from the exhaust of a car. Photo: Marijan Murat/dpa

The alarm bells ring! The CO2 concentration in the atmosphere has again reached new records and continues to rise unstoppably. According to a shattering UN report, the temperature increase on earth will be carved into stone in the long term. In the past 20 years, the amount of climate -damaging gases has increased as rapidly than ever before. The CO2 emissions have increased by alarming 11.4 percent since 2004. And in 2023 this increase was even higher than in the previous year!

But that's not all: the devastating forest fires and constant human damage from CO2 emissions have further tightened the situation. Factors such as the falling CO2 absorption capacity of the forests also play a tragic role in this fatal game. With a shocking concentration of 420 ppm (particles per million), CO2 has demonstrated its harmful presence - a frightening increase of 151 percent compared to the time before industrialization!

The fatal climatic consequences

The numbers are alarming: methane and laughing gas have also reached dramatic levels. With 1934 PPB for methane and 336.9 ppb for laughing gas, they show that the planetary situation is becoming increasingly critical. WMO general secretary Celeste Saulo sums it up: "We are clearly not on the right track to limit global warming to less than two degrees." The climate goals that were agreed in Paris in 2015 seem more danger than ever! This becomes particularly explosive, since the next world climate conference is already at the door, this November in Azerbaijan.

And what does the future bring? CO2 is the most common greenhouse gas that mines extremely slowly. After 1,000 years, 15 to 40 percent are still in the atmosphere, which means that the increase in temperature already observed will not disappear in the coming decades! Life on this planet is at a critical point, and any further delay in combating this climate crisis could have catastrophic consequences!