Accordingly, NOAA’s report indicates that, in May 2022, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 50% higher than in the pre-industrial revolution, even reaching an all-time high on Earth. about 4 million years.
According to NOAA, global warming is caused by humans, especially through activities that generate electricity using fossil fuels, transportation, cement production or deforestation. These activities cause the concentration of CO2 in the air to increase.
May is usually the month that records the highest concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere each year. Specifically, in May 2022, the concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere exceeded 420 ppm. Meanwhile, in May 2021, the index is 419 ppm and in 2020 it is 417 ppm.
The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is at an all-time high. Photo: youmatter
In fact, the above parameters were recorded at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, located on a volcano. It is also an ideal location to help keep measurements unaffected by local pollution, and serve as a global reference point for atmospheric CO2.
During the industrial revolution, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere remained stable at 280 ppm for about 6,000 years, up to the period of industrialization.
However, according to NOAA, current CO2 concentrations are comparable to those recorded 4.1 to 4.5 million years ago, when CO2 concentrations were near or above 400 ppm.
At that time, the sea level was 5-25 cm higher, high enough to engulf many major cities today. According to studies, then, large forests also occupied parts of the Arctic.
According to scientists, CO2 is a type of gas that causes the greenhouse effect. This gas accumulates in the atmosphere and gradually causes global warming. In fact, CO2 can stay in the atmosphere and oceans for thousands of years.
The amount of CO2 naturally present in the atmosphere is low. However, the concentration of this gas has increased since the industrial revolution in the 19th century. In fact, it is human activities such as deforestation, burning fossil fuels that have been contributing to emissions. out CO2.
NOAA notes that, to date, global warming has had serious consequences, including multiplying heat waves, droughts, wildfires and floods.
“CO2 is at an all-time high, but this is not new,” said Pieter Tans, a scientist at NOAA’s Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory. According to Mr. Pieter Tans, through research, we have understood this from half a century ago, but have not taken meaningful action to prevent it.
Facing the increasing rate of greenhouse gases, especially CO2, scientists think it’s time for people to really focus on reducing emissions.
So, what is the solution to reduce CO2 and fight climate change?
CO2 capture technology – a promising solution
According to scientists, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not enough to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the target set out in the Paris Agreement to combat climate change by 2015. .
According to UN experts, it is necessary to use techniques to remove CO2 from the air. In fact, there are many ways, such as planting trees that absorb CO2 and increasing the plankton in the ocean to increase the ability to absorb CO2.
However, the technique that has attracted the most attention is capturing CO2 directly in the air to turn it into ice.
This is also known as CO2 removal or negative CO2 emission (CDR).
CO2 capture technology is considered as one of the potential solutions today. Photo: newscenter
The principle of operation of this technique is to draw air by means of a fan. Next, the air will then pass through a filter and capture CO2 through chemical processes.
The air after CO2 has been removed will be pushed out of the rear of the fan. The filter is then heated to capture CO2.
This amount of CO2 will be pumped down to the rocks at depths from 800 to 2,000 m. When exposed to the elements present in the rock, the gas becomes mineralized in less than 2 years. This is a process that, when occurring in the natural environment, takes hundreds of thousands of years.
Theoretically, negative CO2 emissions can be installed anywhere. However, at present, this technique has significant limitations. Accordingly, the installation must be located near the water source and use a lot of energy. In particular, in order not to cause pollution, the electricity supply of this CO2 capture technology must come from renewable energy.
Although the CO2 capture solution has potential, there are many challenges if it is scaled up. Illustration
Meanwhile, the capacity of current CO2 capture plants is not large. Specifically, only thousands of tons of CO2 have been captured by this technique so far, while the world needs to remove billions of tons of CO2 over the next 30 years.
Finally, the concentration of CO2 in the air is very low, with only 0.041%. This also requires handling large volumes of air and increases the cost of the process.
In November 2021, the Glasgow Climate Agreement was reached at the COP26 Conference. Accordingly, 197 countries have agreed to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. This is the goal set out in the Paris Agreement on climate change 2015.
The goal of avoiding the worst effects of climate change (at 1.5 degrees Celsius) requires rapid and sustainable reductions in large amounts of CO2 emissions, namely a 45% reduction in CO2 emissions. CO2 emissions by 2030 compared with 2010 levels and to zero by mid-century. Besides, the emission of other greenhouse gases also needs to be reduced deeply.
In addition, the commitment of many countries to “gradually reduce” coal use is also seen as a major turning point, because this is the first time fossil fuels have been mentioned at a Gas Summit agreement. post-United Nations.
Article referenced source: Sciencealert, IFLscience, AFP, USAtoday
at Blogtuan.info – Source: Soha.vn – Read the original article here
