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03/28/2024 07:26:40 pm

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El Nino Boosts Carbon Dioxide Levels in Atmosphere to Alarming Highest Records

El Niño

(Photo : NOAA) This image shows the average sea surface temperature for February 2015 as measured by NOAA satellites. The large area of red (warmer than average) can be seen extending through the equatorial Pacific.

Scientists say that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will now reach above threshold levels for the first time in 2016.

More specifically, concentrations of these greenhous gas emissions will exceed 400 parts per million for the entire year, as record annual carbon dioxide levels will aparently be affected by a natural powerful climate event known as El Nino that can shift global temperatures and weather.

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El Nino's impacts will include drier conditions in the tropical regions where it reduces the carbon uptake and triggers more forest fires that can release gas which can boost carbon dioxide levels even more, already adding to burning fossil fuels by man made activities.

According to lead author of the study, Richard Betts of the Met Office Hadley Center and the University of Exeter, this atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is rising every year due to increasing man made carbon emissions however, this year's highest concentrations are further boosted by the El Nino event.

Carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere will reach a record of 3.15 ppm between 2015 to 2016 which is an alarming rate, at above average increasing to 2.1 ppm per year, in the last 60 years, according to researchers' forecast.

In 2015, the annual average carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere surpassed the 400 ppm threshold where this year's will be the first to maintain above level for the entire year and most likely even in our entire lifetimes, according to scientists.

These figures are based from the carbon dioxide record obtained from Mauna Loa, Hawaii in the United States that were first monitored by Charles David Keeling in 1958, where the first measurements only registered 315 ppm in the planet's atmosphere.

This new study is published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

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