The content of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a record level.

Over the past decades, numerous measurements have shown that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases every year. Now measurements are carried out with the help of hundreds of different sensors, located both at ground stations around the planet, and on ships or planes. Possible reasons for increasing the concentration of carbon dioxide are called both the anthropogenic factor and natural climatic processes, in particular the influence of El Niño - fluctuations in the temperature of the surface layers of water in the Pacific Ocean. Thus, the latest data from the OCO-2 orbital carbon observatory show that it was El Niño that was the main reason for the sharp increase in carbon dioxide emissions in the last few years.

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According to the World Meteorological Organization, the amount of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere increased in 2016 and reached its record values. Thus, the world average content of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached 403.3 millionths. This figure is 0.83 percent more than last year. According to data on carbon dioxide content for the last 800 thousand years, obtained with the analysis of Antarctic ice cores, during this period the content of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere fluctuated between 180 and 280 million shares - the level of the pre-industrial era, and the rise began only sharply at the end XVIII century. Therefore, the value achieved in 2016 is a record for this period. The growth rate of the concentration several times reached this level, but then the periods of concentration decrease followed. And today's level of carbon dioxide concentration was observed about one million years ago and earlier.

It is worth noting that in recent decades, not only the content of carbon dioxide is growing, but also the rate of growth of concentration. So, in the 1960s, the average annual CO2 content in the atmosphere increased by 0.6 million parts, but now the average speed is up to 2 ppm. At the same time, however, since 2000, the growth rate of CO2 concentration has reached an approximately constant value and only in the last two or three years has grown slightly due to increased El Niño activity.

Source  "Dynamics of changes in concentration and rate of its growth for carbon dioxide, methane and amusing gas in the atmosphere."

The concentration of other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrogen oxide (I), also increases. In 2016, the methane content increased by 0.5 percent to a level of 1,853 billion shares, and the content of gassing gas by 0.24 percent to the level of 329 billion shares.

To assess the possible impact on an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of anthropogenic factors, often compare the values ​​with those that were in the pre-industrial era in 1750. Since that moment, the level of carbon dioxide has increased by 45 percent, methane level - by 157 percent, and the level of laughing gas by 22 percent.

In order to somehow slow down the increase in the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, scientists offer different ways. So, recently Icelanders upgraded one of their power plants. So now it can capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and thus became the first power plant with a negative CO2 emission. In addition, scientists suggest the conversion of carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere into other substances, for example, methyl alcohol.