- A shocking video showing greenhouse gas emissions around the world
- Read more: Experts blame emissions The hottest day on record
It is the most abundant greenhouse gas, The Earth is warming at an alarming rate.
Stunning new footage shows carbon dioxide (CO2) swirling in the atmosphere. Climate Change.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)The satellites have detected swirls of gas emissions from power plants, forest fires, and livestock farmed for meat.
Of course, CO2 is invisible to the naked eye, but experts at NASA’s Science Visualization Studio have rendered it bright orange to make it more clearly visible.
In the footage, the gas appears to “pulsate” in a fascinating way as the world spins and day turns to night.
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“As policymakers and as scientists, we’re trying to explain where carbon comes from and how it affects the planet,” said Leslie Ott, a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
“Here, you can see how everything is interconnected with the different weather patterns.”
Satellites placed in space carry instruments called spectrometers that detect and monitor greenhouse gases such as CO2.
NASA’s global map shows concentrations of CO2, a gas that moved through Earth’s atmosphere due to wind patterns and atmospheric circulation, from January to March 2020.
As the video zooms in, we see emissions from power plants, fires, and cities rising and spreading across continents and oceans.
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During this period, the majority of emissions from China, the United States and South Asia came from power plants, industrial facilities and vehicles.
Meanwhile, in Africa and South America, the majority of CO2 emissions came from fires associated with land management, agricultural fires and controlled burns. deforestationalong with Burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal.
Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide from the air, so when they are burned they release large amounts of the gas.
In the video, CO2 appears to “pulse”, which is mainly due to human pollution activities that take place during the day.
For example, forest fires typically occur during the day and are extinguished at night, and most vehicles (which emit CO2 from their exhaust fumes) also travel during the day.
Of course, CO2 is not the most powerful greenhouse gas. The most powerful greenhouse gas is methane (CH4), which comes from sources such as burning fossil fuels and decomposing landfill waste.
Scientists say that methane has 28 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide, but thankfully it is not released in such large quantities.
But scientists generally The Earth is heading for climate disaster This is because humanity is unable to sufficiently curb emissions.
Eventually, the Earth will become too warm due to the greenhouse effect, leading to widespread heatstroke and death. Flooding in coastal cities They believe that loss of ice at the poles and food shortages are to blame.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said we are “pressing our foot on the gas on the highway to climate hell”.
