Carbon dioxide levels at highest, mandatory respiratory masks for all only 20 years away

Carbon dioxide levels in the air have reached the highest point. If the trend continues, everyone may have to wear respiratory masks to breathe in just 20 years from now.

 Carbon dioxide, the gas that we exhale to remove toxicity from our body and the one responsible for greenhouse effect the most, is at all-time high quantity in the air. At least two organizations observing global climatic patterns and variations have reported the highest amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for the month of May.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air was 411.25 parts per million. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography measured carbon dioxide at 411.35. This is the highest monthly level ever recorded by scientists.

The scientists studying the greenhouse gases are of the view that this could also be the highest concentration of carbon dioxide in human history.

Carbon dioxide level in the air has been increasing for over three centuries. But in recent decades, the rate of increase in carbon dioxide has been alarming. Besides rapid population growth and cutting of trees, burning of the huge amount of fossil fuels is the prime reason for the very high rate of increase in carbon dioxide in the air. The scientists have found that on an average, the rate of rising in carbon dioxide levels was about 1.6 ppm per year during the 1980s and 1.5 ppm per year in the next decade. But, it accelerated with the turn of the century.

The rate of increase in carbon dioxide levels in the air between 2016 and 2017 was recorded at 2.3 ppm. This was the sixth consecutive year-to-year increase in carbon dioxide level at above 2 ppm rate.

The problem with carbon dioxide is that each molecule of carbon dioxide may take, scientists say, hundreds or even thousands of years to finally dissipate. The carbon dioxide molecules are, in fact, self-powered tiny heat convectors that may keep warming the air and the seas for generations to come.

To understand the real issue with the latest rising trend in greenhouse gas, it is imperative to underscore that the CO2 levels were stable at 280 ppm prior to the industrial revolution.

The climatologists say that if the current rate of rising in carbon dioxide levels continue, it would reach at 450 ppm in just 20 years from now. The company’s manufacturing air-filters and protective gas masks would be the sole beneficiaries.