CO2 level in air at highest in 14 million years, study finds

A publication in the journal “Science” traces CO2 levels from 66 million years BCE to today’s global warming with unprecedented precision.

Current levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere have not been reached for 14 million years on Earth, reveals Thursday, December 7, a vast study which evokes the inhospitable climates towards which humanity is heading. This publication in the journal Science traces CO2 levels from 66 million years BCE to today’s global warming with unprecedented precision.

This level of CO2 dates back much further than scientists previously estimated, between 3 and 5 million years ago. 14 to 16 million years ago, for example, there was no ice cap in Greenland. Gold, “our civilization is accustomed to the sea levels we currently experience, to the warm tropics, to the cold poles and to temperate regions which benefit from abundant precipitation.explained to AFP the main author Baerbel Hoenisch, researcher at Columbia University in New York.

“This shows us how truly, truly unusual what we are doing is in the history of the Earth.”, added the researcher. Before the industrial era, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was around 280 ppm. This has increased by half with human activities, causing temperatures to rise by around 1.4°C. And if our emissions continued, the concentration could rise to 600 or 800 ppm, rates reached during the Eocene (-30 to -40 million years ago), before Antarctica was covered with ice and when wildlife and the planetary flora were very different, with for example immense insects.

Since the 19th century, the Earth’s average temperature has warmed by 1.1°C. Scientists have established with certainty that this increase is due to human activities, which consume fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas). This warming, unprecedented in its speed, threatens the future of our societies and biodiversity. But solutions – renewable energies, sobriety, reduced meat consumption – exist. Discover our answers to your questions about the climate crisis.