One of the major drivers of the exceptional heat building within Earth’s atmosphere has reached levels beyond anything humans have ever experienced, officials announced on Thursday. Carbon dioxide, the gas that accounts for the majority of global warming caused by human activities, is accumulating “faster than ever,” scientists from NOAA, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the University of California San Diego found.

“Over the past year, we’ve experienced the hottest year on record, the hottest ocean temperatures on record, and a seemingly endless string of heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires and storms,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a press release. “Now we are finding that atmospheric CO2 levels are increasing faster than ever.

  • Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    5 months ago

    Bold of you to assume we aren’t largely sterile as a species by the time the current generation has great grandchildren.

    • treefrog@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      I’m actually not assuming but forgetting.

      Because the only thing that scares me more than climate change is microplastics. And I don’t often have the spoons to let myself think about it.