Environment

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Environmental and ecological discussion, particularly of things like weather and other natural phenomena (especially if they're not breaking news).

See also our Nature and Gardening community for discussion centered around things like hiking, animals in their natural habitat, and gardening (urban or rural).

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Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are surging "faster than ever" to beyond anything humans ever experienced, officials say (www.cbsnews.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

CO2 is an important greenhouse gas, but not the only one, and certainly not the most potent, PPM-wise. As a proxy for the overall situation, it's acceptable, but relying solely on CO2 concentrations invites all manner of problems at the margin to go unnoticed.

We also crossed the threshold for "beyond anything humans have experienced" for CO2 several exits ago. Claiming this is suddenly news is disingenuous, and you want some excellent geologists on your team before claiming "faster than ever."

Like, yeah, we're fucked, but this is not great reporting in terms of explaining why and what it means.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Tons of countries have also ramped up their emissions alongside their population growth, so despite any would-be attempts at US/China/EU/India reducing their emissions are basically completely nullified by others