50,000-year-old ice blocks with bubbles revealed the current rate of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission.
According to New Atlas, Oregon State University (OSU) and University of St Andrews scientists, along with the US National Science Foundation, discovered the Antarctic ice that has trapped atmospheric gasses in tiny bubbles.
Using the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide as a sample the scientist has identified the pattern that showed how the CO2 level has risen over the period of time.
Kathleen Wend, the lead author of the study, revealed, “Our research identified the fastest rates of past natural CO2 rise ever observed, and the rate occurring today, largely driven by human emissions, is 10 times higher.”
The researchers also found that over the 50,000 years, the flow of CO2 did increase by an estimated 14 parts per million across 55 years, every 7,000 years, but now the CO2 levels jump that same amount every five or six years.
Wend further added, “The rate and magnitude of atmospheric CO2 rises resolved in this study provide critical constraints on carbon-cycle variability during abrupt climate shifts and urge caution that the modern-day Southern Ocean carbon sink has the potential to weaken in response to continued poleward enhancement of the SH westerlies.”
