Organic Lifestyle Magazine

CO2 Emissions Reach All-Time High Despite Recent COVID Emissions Drop

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Last updated on: June 9, 2020

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At the start of the pandemic, scientists were widely talking about a silver lining in a shut down of the economy: the massive drop in emissions. Emission decreases peaked in early April, showing a 17% decline in global greenhouse gas emissions.

China Nantong Energy’s coal-fired power station in Jiangsu Province, China /BARCROFT MEDIA VIA GETTY IMAGES

The continuing rise in CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere may sound surprising in light of recent findings that the pandemic, and the associated lockdowns, had led to a steep drop in global greenhouse gas emissions, peaking at a 17 percent decline in early April.

Earth’s carbon dioxide levels hit record high, despite coronavirus-related emissions drop

Despite the drop in emissions, CO2 levels are the highest they’ve ever been in human history. Until we reach zero emissions CO2 levels will continue to rise. Our annual growth of greenhouse gas levels was around 0.8ppm per year in the 1960s. The growth rate doubled in the 1980s and has reached 2.4ppm within the last decade’

“The buildup of CO2 is a bit like trash in a landfill. As we keep emitting, it keeps piling up,” said Ralph Keeling, who directs Scripps’s carbon dioxide monitoring program, and whose late father, Charles David Keeling, began measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii in 1958.

Earth’s carbon dioxide levels hit record high, despite coronavirus-related emissions drop
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Sage Edwards

Sage Edwards

Sage is a writer and photographer for Organic Lifestyle Magazine. At 18 years old Sage weighed more than 320 pounds. After years of being in persistent pain at such a young age, she decided it was time for a change. She started cranberry lemonade, a salad a day, cut out refined sugar and processed foods, Sage lost 100 pounds in less than a year. Today she likes to start her mornings with a run and weight lifting, and a big salad. She enjoys cooking, working out, and learning about health and the way of the Organic Lifestyle.

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