Climate: Running Out of Time

Two more stories on the climate in trouble.

The BBC has reported that US climate scientists have “recorded a significant rise in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, pushing it to a new record level.

The latest data shows CO2 levels now stand at 381 parts per million (ppm) – 100ppm above the pre-industrial average. The UK government’s chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir David King, told the BBC: “Today we’re over 380 ppm. That’s higher than we’ve been for over a million years, possibly 30 million years. Mankind is changing the climate.”

Meanwhile the Independent led with the headline “Climate change ‘irreversible’ as Arctic sea ice fails to re-form”. According to the paper: “Sea ice in the Arctic has failed to re-form for the second consecutive winter, raising fears that global warming may have tipped the polar regions in to irreversible climate change far sooner than predicted”.