Elevated Atmospheric Carbon-Di-Oxide Level in the atmosphere: The Hidden Challenges

A recent report on global atmospheric carbon-di-oxide level has created a concern among the scientific community associated with global warming and climate change research. The report released by National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on 9^th of this month has stated that the daily average carbon-di-oxide concentration has surpassed the level of 400 ppm as observed in the Mauna Loa Observatory at Hawaii Islands. As stated by NOAA, such a higher level has been reached for the first time in the last 800,000 years. The same has also been reported by another climate research group ‘Scripps Institute of Oceanography’ who has also added that similar concentration of the green house gas was present during  the Pilocene Age, 3-5 million years ago.

The most significant aspect of this finding is that it depicts two important facts; firstly, the possible menace of global warming and associated climate change is on an increasing trend and secondly the global emission reduction is yet a long distance goal. Without a doubt, the continuous and ever increasing burning of fossil fuels like coal, petroleum and natural gas across the world is the largest contributor towards increased carbon-di-oxide in earth’s gaseous blanket. NOAA report also includes that the decadal growth rate of carbon-di-oxide concentration has risen to 2.1 ppm from a mere 0.7 ppm reported during the 1950s. Being a green house gas, the elevated level of carbon-di-oxide is necessarily a cause of concern if we talk in terms of global warming. Simultaneously, we can also expect more and more climatic anomalies in terms of altered pattern of rainfall, wind, higher numbers of cyclones, cloud burst, hailstorms, drought, flood etc. Similarly, warming will also have an impact on our sea level through the melting of glaciers and polar ice caps thereby affecting the low lying areas. Such anomalies in the weather pattern are feared to increase the challenge lying ahead of the world community with respect to food security. That is because, the sole food producing activity, agriculture is largely dependant on climate. This is more than a reality for a country like India, where more than seventy percent of the agriculture is rainfed or climate dependant. Not only that, the same will also have a negative impact on allied activities like fish rearing, marine food industries and so on. So, a probable increase of climate change events will directly put a question on the equation of feeding the 7 billion stomach of the world. Another worth mentionable concern related to these issues is that of environmental migration. It has been discussed in different climate change talks that submergence of low lying nations may lead to international conflicts as it will increase the number of environmental refugees migrating from one nation to another. This particular challenge has made emission reduction a much aspired goal for the global community in this 21^st century.

Latest climate negotiations, ranged from Kyoto Protocol, 1997 to the latest Doha agreement, 2012 are the representations of notably failed attempts on the part of the nations towards global carbon-di-oxide emission reduction in reality. While Kyoto Protocol has failed to bind the countries into a legal agreement towards emission reduction, its success lied in identifying the contribution of industrialized countries towards global warming. On the other hand, the latest Doha conference was also unable to suggest some kind of solid, legally binding solutions to cut off the emission from the countries. It significantly brought out two real facts of the scenario - the developed countries are unwilling to curtail their emission and the developing or under developed countries lack sufficient fund to invest in emission reduction technologies. However, Doha’s success lies in the fact that it opened a ‘gateway’ to investments by the richer countries on poorer ones to reduce the emission.

So, the new report of NOAA will certainly increase the pressure on the global community to achieve a modest reduction in their green house gas emission rate, either individually i.e. country wise or internationally.  But, till date all these international climate discussions and negotiations have come under the scanner due to the differences among the countries in terms of their ideologies and policies, be it a political or economic one. However, the latest findings have emphasized one particular point. The point is that we need a global cooperative and cumulative effort to reduce atmospheric carbon-di-oxide level irrespective of our political and economic ideology, if at all we are interested in keeping the increment of global temperature below 2⁰ Celsius. Other wise, not much time is left for the globe to be a heart-wracked witness of an impending doom symbolized with its degenerated biodiversity, degraded ecological systems, reduced food availability, increased disease incidence and a dead environment.