As much of the world went into lockdown due to the novel coronavirus in early 2020, scientists observed some notable declines in air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. A few months on, we are learning more and more about how this fits into the overall picture of climate change, with a new report from the World Meteorological Organization revealing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are continuing to soar to record levels, with no signs of slowing down.
The coronavirus lockdowns that brought much of global society to a standstill this year led to a sharp decline in global carbon emissions. This drop was described as “extreme” by scientists analyzing the trend in May, with daily global carbon dioxide emissions dropping by as much as 17 percent at the height of the stay-at-home measures.
However, analysis published around the same time showed that atmospheric carbon dioxide had continued to hit record highs. While seemingly counter-intuitive, these revelations actually served as a useful indicator of how it will take more than short-term corrections to reverse the long-term trend of global warming, given the considerable momentum built up after decades of largely unchecked emissions.
A new report, titled United in Science 2020 and compiled by scientists from the UN, the Global Carbon Project, the UK Met Office and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, illustrates the continuation of this trend, even while much of the world still grapples with the pandemic and its disruption to everyday life.
Scientists measure the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as parts per million (ppm), with levels below 350 ppm considered to be safe for a livable planet. The new report reveals a number of new records at monitoring stations around the world, with levels of 414.38 ppm measured in July at Mauna Loa in Hawaii, up from 411.74 ppm last year, and 410.04 ppm being measured at Cape Grim in Australia, up from 407.83 in July of last year.
“This has been an unprecedented year for people and planet,” says UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives worldwide. At the same time, the heating of our planet and climate disruption has continued apace. Never before has it been so clear that we need long-term, inclusive, clean transitions to tackle the climate crisis and achieve sustainable development. We must turn the recovery from the pandemic into a real opportunity to build a better future. We need science, solidarity and solutions.”
The full report can be accessed online here.
The use of FFs really hasn't changed that much or long enough on covid, only down 20% so it could take a while for that to work though the system what little it is to be detected.
And you have things like massive wildfires caused by CC in the US case at least adding huge amounts could blunt the signal too as could CC warming in the arctic causing CO2 releases.
Global warming enthusiasts will take credit for being on the right side of the argument, regardless of whether global warm happens, or declines. They will blame humans if the global warming theory proves true, and they will take the credit if it is untrue since they will claim that their actions have cause a decline in the global temperature.
The post re California bushfires here - the bushfires put heavy particulates in the air (aka ash). That settles out so is no factor. The CO2 output from the fires is not great, and is offset in subsequent years by the vigorous growth of new plant life that absorbs carbon and emits oxygen,
Understand, too, that the occurrence of just one new volcano anywhere offsets the savings in emissions that humans make. Consider, too, that the Canadian government put out a study, about ten years ago, that stated that the carbon emissions from the beetles that infest the forests on the west coast outweighed all transportation emissions (cars, planes, buses, trains). If Canada halved transportation emissions it would make no difference, so why not concentrate on the beetle instead? Same with termites, the most populous animal on the planet.
Here, in California, we had three weeks of below average temperatures followed by a heat wave, followed by a week of below average temperatures. The hot weather arrives and the empty suit governor cried global warming. I get tired of the hysteria - this article reported by New Atlas says it all.