The rapid addition of carbon generated by human activities is warming the earth and changing our climate. Solutions to climate change are complex and multifaceted, but one way to mitigate climate change is right in front of us: trees and forests, by capturing carbon from the atmosphere, have an incredible potential to regulate the climate and restore natural habitats. Explanations with Dr Katia Nicolet, scientist and marine biologist on board Energy Observer.
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1 Act for energy transition
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Anthropogenic CO2 emissions - the amount of CO2 originated from human-activities - has reached 40 billion tonnes per year. 40,000,000,000 tonnes of excess carbon dumbed into our atmosphere every single year due to the burning of fossil fuel.
Today, this rapid addition of carbon is warming the earth and changing our climate. The world’s ecosystems are absorbing about half of our anthropogenic emissions, in forests and oceans, but not without dramatic consequences, like ocean acidification. This buffer provided by natural systems is all but running out. From 1900 to 2020, the atmospheric CO2 concentration went from 296 to 412 ppm (parts per million), resulting in an increase of 2˚C of global temperatures since the pre-industrial era. And the rate of warming has doubled in the past 40 years.
To give you an idea, the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2005, meaning that 10 out of the 15 past years have been the warmest in history...
L'arbre General Sherman, Parc National des Sequoias, Californie © Energy Observer Productions I Agathe Roullin
The full article can be found on Energy Observer website.
Learn, understand, transmit, exchange and share: this free to access exhibition is a unique opportunity to dive from the laboratory ship to topics as fundamental as climate change, ecological transition, energy policies and sustainable development.
All over the world, women and men are devoting their time and energy to the creation of sustainable solutions for a more harmonious world. Energy Observer is heading off in search of them in a bid to promote their ideas and actions.