Carbon dioxide: levels never reached in 3.6 million years.

In the United States, scientists from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) made public last Wednesday the results of a latest study and the conclusion is final. According to them, human activity is the main cause of climate change.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in French the American Oceanic and Atmospheric Observation Agency, is the American agency responsible for studying the ocean and the atmosphere. It was created in 1970 by Richard Nixon. Under the United States Department of Commerce, this agency aims to "better protect life and property from natural disasters, better understand the environment, provide the interface for exploration and development towards the intelligent use of natural resources. marine resources ”.

The level of carbon dioxide found in our Earth's atmosphere is higher today than it has been in the past 3.6 million years. One would have thought that the global pandemic caused by Covid 19 and the resulting economic slowdown would have contributed to bending this curve, but it is not. Despite a tiny drop in 2020, the global temperature has already risen by more than 1 degree compared to the pre-industrial era.

Along with carbon dioxide, scientists have also reported that methane continues its inexorable rise. In 2020, these two gases, which are the main greenhouse gases, have climbed to unprecedented levels. Analyzes have shown that methane contributes a greater share than carbon to global warming

Colm Sweeney, member of the agency, said Wednesday: “ If we want to reduce the most deleterious effects, we will have to make a special effort on the CO² emissions released by fossil fuels and reduce them to almost zero. And even if we do, we will still have to look for other ways to rid the atmosphere of greenhouse gases. "

The agency insisted that only human activity is involved. It is indeed the combustion of fossil fuels such as petroleum or coal that are the cause of the rise in earth temperatures. Natural factors alone cannot explain such a warming.

Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at NASA, was even more adamant, saying: “We are absolutely certain that the increase in CO² is the cause of the warming of the Earth. I am also sure that smoking causes cancer! "