The soaring atmospheric CO2 concentration poses serious challenges to mankind
The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere today has reached its highest value in a long time. According to a recent study published in the journal Geology, scientists found that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere today exceeds the highest record in the past 23 million years, and its soaring speed is also unprecedented.
Since industrialization, mankind has continuously upgraded and developed demand, and greenhouse gas emissions have become increasingly strong. Long-term studies have shown that the concentration of CO2 has risen sharply since the beginning of the 19th century, and this point in time was before and after the industrial revolution. At present, CO2 is considered to be one of the pollutants with the strongest greenhouse effect, and the increase in CO2 concentration is closely related to climate change. Currently, the existing direct records can be traced back hundreds of years, but before that, the situation was very vague. The ice cores drilled by scientists can allow people to "see" scenes as far back as 2.7 million years ago when the CO2 concentration was less than 300 ppm.
In this latest study, researchers at Louisiana State University in the United States set their sights on a longer time, dating back to 23 million years ago. The team achieved this goal by studying the fossil remains of ancient plants. Because when plants grow, they absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, and plant tissues retain certain stable carbon isotopes, especially carbon-12 and carbon-13. When these plants become fossils, scientists can study the content of isotopes to determine the CO2 concentration of plants when they grow.
The research team found through this method that the CO2 concentration fluctuated between 230ppm and 350ppm during the entire 23 million years. This is far below the modern level. The study also found that in the long years of the past, the CO2 concentration has never risen so drastically as we are now experiencing.
The researchers pointed out that in the past 23 million years, warming events have been related to the increase in CO2 concentration, including the mid-Miocene that occurred 15 to 17 million years ago, and the upper end of the 3 to 5 million years ago. Mid-Pleocene.
In May last year, data measured by the Monaroa Observatory in Hawaii showed that the CO2 concentration reached a new high of 415.26 ppm, which is also the highest in human history. Now this latest research further proves the seriousness of the challenges facing humanity.
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Like the new crown pneumonia epidemic, climate change is another major challenge facing the world. Such problems have one thing in common: they do not only affect a certain region or a certain group of people, but will affect the destiny of all mankind; at the same time, solving them requires a change in everyone's concept and action. It can be said that they are a real test of human wisdom. If you want to solve the problem, you must break away from short-term self-interest, use a long-term vision and overall situation to examine the status quo, find coping strategies, and promote problem solving through cooperation.
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