New figures from
the Mauna Loa (CO2)
Observatory show
humans are irrelevant ?
Global CO2 hit 417ppm.
This is a record high
since measurement
began there in 1958.
The world failed to beak
the rising CO2 trend
despite the global
lockdown
Two months of significantly
reduced human activity
did not make a dent
in the CO2 level.
“People may be surprised
to hear that the response
to the coronavirus outbreak
hasn’t done more to influence
CO2 levels,” Ralph Keeling,
a geochemist who runs
the Scripps Oceanography
CO2 program, said
in a statement.
Daily emissions of CO2
were cut by 17% (average)
worldwide in early April,
but as COVID-19 lockdowns
eased, the fall in emissions
for the year as a whole
is likely to be only
between 4% and 7%
compared to 2019.
Large month-to-month
variations in natural CO2
sources and sinks
make it difficult to see
a downturn in the
anthropogenic
(man made)
source of CO2
unless
it was very large,
perhaps over 50%,
and prolonged,
perhaps over a year.
The increase of atmospheric
CO2 during the COVID shutdown,
when man‘s emissions of CO2
were sharply reduced,
was almost *indistinguishable*
from the CO2 increase
in the preceding year,
when man’s emissions
of CO2 were much greater.