A new video showing the global movements of carbon dioxide during one year may look beautiful, but such impressions are misleading. The video, produced by NASA, shows just how much humans are impacting the world’s atmosphere, leading to rising temperatures, ocean acidification, melting glaciers, vanishing sea ice, and untold impacts on both wildlife and human communities.
NASA used a supercomputer to model carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere over a year—2006—which change significantly due to weather patterns, seasonal changes, and various emissions and sinks.
The model also shows the annual movements of carbon monoxide—in black and white—due to fires, including burning for agriculture and forest fires.
Related articles
Indonesia to weaken peatlands protection to support plantations
(01/08/2015) The Indonesian Ministry of the Environment and Forestry has announced it will further hobble its peatlands protection law to allow plantations to continue operating on a business as usual basis. |
Growth of forests may not be keeping pace with rising CO2 levels
(12/15/2014) Plants rely on three critical elements for growth: carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight. Rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are therefore expected to increase rates of forest growth, in turn helping counter some of humanity’s influence on global climate. But a new study provides evidence that challenges that assumption. |
Indonesia sets reference level for cutting deforestation
(12/05/2014) The Indonesian government has established reference levels for measuring reductions in emissions from deforestation and forest and peatland degradation, reports Antara. |
Threatened indigenous forests store more than half the Amazon’s carbon
(12/02/2014) A new study released today finds the total carbon load locked up in parts of the Amazon rainforest held by indigenous groups to be much higher than previously estimated – an amount that, if released, would be capable of destabilizing the earth’s atmosphere. But because of flimsy land rights, these areas stand at risk of deforestation. |
Rising deforestation, fossil fuels use drive Brazil’s emissions 8% higher
(11/24/2014) Brazil’s carbon emissions jumped 7.8 percent in 2013 due to rising deforestation and fossil fuels use, according to data released by Observatório do Clima (Climate Observatory), an alliance of mostly Brazilian non-profits. |
Ending deforestation won’t stop carbon emissions from land use change
(11/17/2014) Even if the world stopped cutting down forests, carbon dioxide emissions from land use change would still pose a major challenge, according to a new paper in Nature Climate Change. The research finds that eliminating deforestation would mean agriculture would be pushed into non-forest ecosystems and still release significant quantities of carbon dioxide. |