The concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has reached a record high, according to scientists at the Scripps Oceanographic Institute in the United States.
The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii recorded Saturday a carbon dioxide level of 415.39 parts per million (ppm), a first reading of the greenhouse gas exceeding 415 ppm.
Read more: Why biodiversity loss hurts humans as much as climate change
Carbon dioxide levels are normally higher in the northern hemisphere in the fall, winter and spring.
The last time that there was more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was more than 3 million years ago, while global average temperatures were 3 or 4 degrees Celsius higher than those in the world. Today, the oceans were several meters higher and some parts of the Antarctic forests supported.
The data were recorded as part of the Keeling Curve, which began measurements at Mauna Loa in 1958. Since then, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have increased by 30%.
Read more: Climate change: millions of hectares of tropical forest destroyed in 2018
Before the industrial revolution of the 19th century, carbon dioxide levels had fluctuated but never exceeded 300 ppm in the last 800,000 years. Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere exceeded 400 ppm for the first time in the history of humanity in 2013.
Despite global commitments to reduce greenhouse gases under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the rate of heat trapping in the air is accelerating. The last four years are the four hottest ever recorded.
Read more: Climate change: Energy-related CO2 emissions hit a record high in 2018
Ralph Keeling, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography's CO2 program, said the trend would likely continue in 2019 with the possibility of an El Nino year in which temperatures would rise due to warming ocean currents.
"The average growth rate remains high.The increase over last year will likely be about three parts per million, while the recent average is 2.5 ppm", a- he declared. "We are probably seeing the effect of the mild conditions of El Nino on the current use of fossil fuels."
"Every year, it goes up like that, we should say:" No, it should not happen. This is not normal. "This increase is simply not sustainable in terms of using energy and what we are doing for the planet," he said.
According to the Scripps Institution, emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere could reach 1,000 ppm in the next century in current emission trajectories.
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Tourism holiday and climate change: visiting the natural wonders before their disappearance
Transitional treasure
According to a survey conducted in 2016 of the estimated 2 million people visiting the Great Barrier Reef each year, 69% of them came to visit the UNESCO World Heritage Site "before". it's too late. " And no wonder. The IPCC says that even if we manage to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius, 99% of the world's corals will be destroyed. Tourists can speed up their disappearance by touching or polluting the reefs.
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Tourism holiday and climate change: visiting the natural wonders before their disappearance
Bearly there
And what is the carbon cost of flights to distant natural wonders under threat? A 2010 study found that polar bear safari activity in Churchill, Canada had an annual carbon footprint of 20 megatonnes. Most visitors arrived by plane and while 88% of them said that humans were responsible for climate change, only 69% admitted that air transport was one of the causes.
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Tourism holiday and climate change: visiting the natural wonders before their disappearance
Art of the apocalypse
With the polar bear, one of the most iconic images of climate change must be the dramatic curves of an iceberg sculpted by the warming of the atmosphere. Sliding between the giants of cast iron on a cruise ship is a haunting experience for which tourists will pay huge sums. In the early 1990s, only 5,000 people traveled to Antarctica each year, compared with more than 46,000 in 2018.
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Tourism holiday and climate change: visiting the natural wonders before their disappearance
High season
You do not have to go to the poles to see the ice disappearing. The snow-capped peaks of Kilimanjaro are a breathtaking spectacle above the Equatorial Savannah National Park, which generates 44 million euros ($ 50 million) of tourism each year. Many visitors climb to the Furtwängler Glacier – where 85% of the ice has disappeared in the last century. It is unlikely that the rest will survive beyond the middle of the century.
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Tourism holiday and climate change: visiting the natural wonders before their disappearance
a king without a crown
When Montana Glacier National Park opened in 1910, it had more than 100 ice elements that earned it its name. Now there are less than two dozen. Their retirement is so spectacular that the park has become a research center in climatology. Some 3 million hikers and vacationers also visit the "crown of the continent" every year, plunging into the last days of its icy glory.
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Tourism holiday and climate change: visiting the natural wonders before their disappearance
Lost paradise
The Maldives are the tourist paradise par excellence: 1,200 coral islands with white sand beaches rising just 2.5 meters above the turquoise waters. In 2017, the president decided to build new airports and mega-ports to accommodate seven times more tourists and use the revenue to build new islands and relocate communities. He has since been dismissed and faces corruption charges.
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Tourism holiday and climate change: visiting the natural wonders before their disappearance
Salt marsh
It is not just the islands that disappear as the sea level rises. Wetlands like the Florida Everglades are also disappearing. During the last century, about half of the Everglades have been drained and devoted to agriculture. Now, salt water is infiltrating into what remains, making it the only critically endangered World Heritage site in the United States.
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Tourism holiday and climate change: visiting the natural wonders before their disappearance
Troubling peace
The Galapagos will forever be associated with Darwin, who understood that their unique wildlife had evolved over countless generations in isolation. Today, they are besieged by visitors and environmental changes are occurring too quickly for species to adapt to them. The warming of the ocean has left iconic creatures like the hungry marine iguana, while UNESCO ranks tourism among the biggest threats to the archipelago.
Author: Ruby Russell
cw / cmk (AFP, dpa)
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