Читать книгу Climate Change For Dummies - Elizabeth May - Страница 76

If scientists are right about the connection between carbon dioxide and climate change, then what comes next? The past is all very interesting, but it’s history. What the future holds concerns all of humanity — and the predictions that scientists have for the future are alarming.

As the ice cores demonstrate, carbon dioxide levels have always fluctuated (check out the section, “Making the Case for Carbon” earlier in the chapter for more information), but the atmosphere now has 35 percent more carbon dioxide than at any time in the last 800,000 years. Historically, carbon dioxide has reached highs of 280 ppm at a maximum. The atmosphere is now at 412 ppm.

This increase in carbon dioxide is an extraordinary shift. If present trends continue, the Earth’s average temperature is likely to be 3.6 to 10.8 degrees F (2 to 6 degrees C) above 1850 temperatures — and that temperature increase could be disastrous for all life on Earth. The Earth’s temperature has already risen approximately 1.4 degrees F (1.11 degrees C). You find more about what a rise of 1.5 degree or 2 degrees C would mean in Chapters 10 and 17.