The CO 2 in the atmosphere reached a record high - The País.com (Spain)

The level of carbon dioxide, the gas that contributes to global warming, has passed a symbolic barrier feared as specialists reported yesterday, and it has reached levels not seen on Earth for millions of years. Monitors scientists have stated that the gas has reached a daily average of over 400 parts per million (ppm). Is this just an isolated moment on the odometer, but also a serious reminder that efforts to control emissions from human activity have failed.

The best evidence that exists suggests that the amount of gas in the air had not been so high since at least three million years, ie before humans evolved, and scientists believe that the increase portends major changes in climate and sea level.

“symbolizes that so far we have failed to detect this problem,” said Pieter P. Tans, who runs the program for the control of emissions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, author of the data.

Ralph Keeling, who runs another program on CO2 emissions at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, said that a continued increase could be catastrophic. “It means that we are rapidly losing the ability to keep the climate below the tolerable believed” he added. The new data come from sensors located on top of Mauna Loa volcano the largest island of Hawaii, which has long been the benchmark in the study of the evolution of these emissions.

Hawaii

??devices carry half a century by sampling fresh clean air that has circulated in the Pacific Ocean, thousands of kilometers from the coast and large cities. The first time I detected more than 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide in the Arctic was last year and also exceeded the level hourly readings at Mauna Loa, but the average reading had not yet exceeded this level over a whole day.

carbon dioxide rises and falls in cycles of time and their level will be below the 400 ppa in the summer as the plant growth in the northern hemisphere launches 10 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere then . Experts warn, however, that the recovery will be short and that every time is nearer than when there is any point on Earth with less than 400 ppa in any season.

© The New York Times News Service 2013