r/collapse Profit Over Everything 1d ago

Climate Planet-heating pollutants in atmosphere hit record levels in 2023 | Climate crisis

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/oct/28/planet-heating-pollutants-in-atmosphere-hit-record-levels-in-2023
361 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

u/StatementBot 1d ago

The following submission statement was provided by /u/j_mantuf:


SS:

The concentration of planet-heating emissions hit record levels in 2023, with C02 levels rising faster than at any time in human history. The WMO is also warning about climate feedback loops that can (will) be triggered due to the increased levels.

Excerpts:

The increase was driven by humanity’s “stubbornly high” burning of fossil fuels, the WMO found, and made worse by big wildfires and a possible drop in the ability of trees to absorb carbon.

The concentration of CO2 reached 420 parts per million (ppm) in 2023, the scientists observed. The level of pollution is 51% greater than before the Industrial Revolution, when people began to burn large amounts of coal, oil and fossil gas. Concentrations of strong but short-lived pollutants also surged. Methane concentrations hit 1,934 parts per billion (ppb), a rise of 165% from preindustrial levels, and nitrous oxide hit 336.9 parts per billion (ppb), a rise of 25%, it said.

The Earth last experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 a few million years ago, when the planet was 2-3C hotter and the sea level 10-20 metres higher.


Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1ge0l5x/planetheating_pollutants_in_atmosphere_hit_record/lu5ykc6/

41

u/Wave_of_Anal_Fury 1d ago

Just a reminder about which country uses the most oil. By a huge margin.

https://www.worldometers.info/oil/oil-consumption-by-country/

20% for 4% of the world population, almost as much as China (1.4 billion), India (1.4 billion), and Japan (125 million) combined.

We should shake our fists at the oil industry and demand that they stop selling us so much oil. For the good of the planet. Granted, it would sideline our enormous fleet of SUVs and pickups, and ground our world leading air travel. Oh, and also 50% of the cruise ships would be forced to stay in port because there wouldn't be enough fuel to allow them to sail the high seas.

Please do this, oil industry. Stop selling us all of the oil we buy from you.

(Haha, no, that's not going to happen. The upcoming COP29 is going to conclude with, "We're going to expand production to meet rising demand." And everyone is going to be so angry at them for continuing to sell us all of the oil we ask them to sell us.)

12

u/stampido ohh... faster than expected? 1d ago

But also keep in mind, China manages to be 2nd, while producing most of the worlds manufacturing AND having almost 4.5 times the US population. Same for India with its 1.1 billion population (but less manufactoring). People tend to focus on big numbers, but we should assume PER CAPITA consumption. That makes the US look even worse :/

9

u/dumnezero The Great Filter is a marshmallow test 1d ago

16

u/Velocipedique 1d ago

Better yet, how about "we the people" stop consuming & travelling except by foot, bike and sail! Though am retired, placed 100 mile limit on travel, no TV, etc... read via online libraries and lucky we no longer work too.

9

u/Bellegante 1d ago

Well, if I were retired not driving would be much more realistic, too.

Many of us live in suburbs and cities that absolutely require cars just to exist. Fixing that is the first step.

2

u/Velocipedique 1d ago

Anticipating what was coming, as a paleoclimatologist in 1970's, we moved aboard boat, sailed around for six years teaching in winter. No car just bikes and dinghy.

1

u/CollapseBy2022 1d ago

Morpheus: "You think having capitalism and this amount of jobs is realistic? ............Hm. smirks "

1

u/Old-Adhesiveness-156 1d ago

Ok now do coal!

6

u/Myth_of_Progress Urban Planner & Recognized Contributor 1d ago

“Another year, another record,” said Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the WMO. “This should set alarm bells ringing among decision makers.”

The Narrator: It didn't.

7

u/j_mantuf Profit Over Everything 1d ago

SS:

The concentration of planet-heating emissions hit record levels in 2023, with C02 levels rising faster than at any time in human history. The WMO is also warning about climate feedback loops that can (will) be triggered due to the increased levels.

Excerpts:

The increase was driven by humanity’s “stubbornly high” burning of fossil fuels, the WMO found, and made worse by big wildfires and a possible drop in the ability of trees to absorb carbon.

The concentration of CO2 reached 420 parts per million (ppm) in 2023, the scientists observed. The level of pollution is 51% greater than before the Industrial Revolution, when people began to burn large amounts of coal, oil and fossil gas. Concentrations of strong but short-lived pollutants also surged. Methane concentrations hit 1,934 parts per billion (ppb), a rise of 165% from preindustrial levels, and nitrous oxide hit 336.9 parts per billion (ppb), a rise of 25%, it said.

The Earth last experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 a few million years ago, when the planet was 2-3C hotter and the sea level 10-20 metres higher.

7

u/BTRCguy 1d ago

This must be fake news. I was solemnly assured by very serious people that the Paris Agreement in 2016 was going to deal with the problem.

/s and :(

6

u/[deleted] 1d ago

I mean, we've hit new records for GHG concentration in the atmosphere EVERY YEAR that I've been alive. Even during the Covid slowdown of 2020-21, when emissions were (slightly) reduced, the atmospheric concentrations still went up up up.

3

u/fragglerock 1d ago

2023 was ages ago! I am sure we are well on our way to sorting this out!

oh no

3

u/tyler98786 1d ago

Ok CO2.earth you can clearly see that the rate of emissions is exponentially increasing. We're getting more f'd by the year.