Covid19 and Climate Change – the facts

Don’t be lulled by the good news stories circulating that covid19 is a positive for global warming.

Sure, there is a slight reduction in the rate of CO2 emissions short term. But we are still in deep trouble. Look at this:

What this is saying is that there is more carbon dioxide in the air today (416ppm), mid virus lock down, than there was 2 months ago before the world went into hibernation (414ppm).

Even with most of the world sitting at home, our atmospheric CO2 levels have gone up.

The problem is controlling atmospheric CO2 levels is not like turning a tap on and off when you fill a bath. What humans have spewed into the atmosphere for the last 100 years will take nature centuries, or more likely millennia, to remove even if we stopped all CO2 emissions totally, today.

Remember that historically CO2 levels do fluctuate, but they do so under the 300 parts per million level. When it shoots up higher there are consequences, many of which we saw vividly in 2019 with unprecedented bushfires, floods, droughts, and catastrophic weather patterns. This next graph from NASA is a startling reality shock of where we are now:  

Imagine if you went to the doctor and that was your blood pressure chart. I think you’d be terrified.

Let’s not be lulled into complacency as we deal with the covid19 pandemic. The last thing we need as a species is to stumble from one man made crisis straight into the arms of another far more deadly one from which there is no hiding. 

The good news is we can do something, and we can make a difference. Let’s get through this current challenge safely and with a renewed resolve to deal decisively with what is next to come.