Megan Hutchinson
Staff Reporter
How much carbon dioxide are we emitting into our atmosphere as we live our daily lives? At an average temperature and air pressure, one metric ton of carbon dioxide would fill a sphere of 32 feet in diameter. Today, the average car in the United States could fill this in a three-month period according to NASA.
According to the UCAR, carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas that helps to trap heat in our atmosphere. Without it, our planet would be inhospitably cold. However, a gradual increase in CO2 concentrations in Earth's atmosphere is helping to drive global warming, threatening to disrupt our planet's climate as average global temperatures gradually rise.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, since the 1970s, fossil fuels and levels of carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 90%. However, the United States has only contributed to about 15%, while countries like China produce around 30%. In 1900 there were less than 1,000 metric tons of carbon in the air. However, in 2010 it was recorded to be around less than 10,000 metric tons of carbon in the air.
Today in 2021, “carbon dioxide levels are at their highest in 650,000 years”. So how do scientists know climate change is real? Well at NASA, they discovered the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019, while Antarctica lost about 148 billion tons of ice per year. In addition, their research also concluded that “The ocean has absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 100 meters (about 328 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.33 degrees Celsius) since 1969. Earth stores 90% of the extra energy in the ocean.
As we continue to research climate change evidence such as “ancient tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks, this ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming. Carbon dioxide from human activity is increasing more than 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age”.
Scientists have concluded however, we can help with climate change by changing the simplest things in our everyday life. For example, according to the Natural Resource Defense Council, doing simple things such as switching out traditional light bulbs for energy-efficient LED bulbs. These LED bulbs can help reduce over seven billion pounds of carbon pollution, relatively the amount of carbon pollution produced from 648,000 cars.
Aliya Haq, the director at the NRDC Energy and Climate Special Projects states, “Change only happens when individuals take action,” “There’s no other way if it doesn’t start with people” in an article about how you can help prevent climate change.
Image Credit: Mark Garlick
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