CO2 levels are rising at an alarming rate, and the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii has the latest readings to prove it. Current data reports suggest that the beginning of the industrial revolution sparked a 40% rise in the hazardous emissions, reaching the highest levels in the past 650,000 years. Readings show that the concentration of CO2 levels is currently 387ppm (parts per million).
In a perfect world, forest and oceans would absorb half of the CO2 released by human activity, but their capacity to do so is declining. Environmental and climate scientists inform us that atmospheric carbon dioxide fluctuates between seasons. During summer months, plants normally fix more carbon through photosynthesis than they release in respiration, but when winter hits, photosynthesis weakens and carbon dioxide re-accumulates in the atmosphere. This trend is continually spiraling upwards.
China’s booming economic development and thirst for energy has taken it to first place as the emitter of the greatest amount of greenhouses gasses in the world due to its increased use of coal for power. Experts say that countries that rely heavily on the use of coal for power share a large responsibility for the large increase in CO2 emissions.