greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased more than 100 percent since preindustrial times until 2014, so that does not stop the process of climate change. The latest report of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) notes that in 2014, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas-length, reached 397.7 parts per million ( ppm).
The report recalls that CO2 “is an invisible but very real threat,” which implies higher global temperatures, increased number of weather events extremes such as heat waves and droughts, melting ice , rising sea levels and increased ocean acidity.
Current emissions would have a effect that will last for centuries. “Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years in the ocean and much more. The past, present and future emissions will have a cumulative effect on both the warming and acidification of oceans “, says the text
Methane (CH4) is the second largest greenhouse gas-length with another new high in 2014: about 1,833 parts per billion ( ppb), which now amounts to 254 percent of its pre-industrial level.
Nitrous oxide (N2O), meanwhile, has a 327.1 ppb atmospheric concentration 2014, equivalent to 121 percent of pre-industrial levels. Its effect on the climate over a period of 100 years is 298 times that of the same carbon dioxide emissions . This gas also contributes significantly to the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer, which protects us from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.
The study warns that “it is likely that the global annual average concentration exceeds 400 ppm in 2016 “, and also warns that the interaction between increasing levels of carbon dioxide and water vapor, since the increase in surface temperatures caused by CO2 causes in turn increasing global water vapor levels, further increases the greenhouse effect.
However, this research on greenhouse gas reports its atmospheric emissions and no concentrations. The issue is the amount of gas to the atmosphere and the concentration, the amount remaining after the complex interactions that take place between the atmosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and oceans.
Approximately one quarter of total CO2 emissions are absorbed by the ocean and another quarter by the biosphere, reducing the amount of this gas in the atmosphere. The level of about 278 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere concentrated in the preindustrial era represented a balance between the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere. Human activities such as burning fossil fuels, have altered the 2014 natural balance and the global average concentration of CO2 reached 143 percent of the average in the preindustrial era.
Geneva (EFE)
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