NASA Creates Brilliant Video To Illustrate The Role Of CO2 In Climate Around The World

NASA creates incredible video to illustrate the role of CO2 in climate change around the world

byJen HaydenFollow

NASA has released an amazing new video: A Year in the Life of Earth's CO2. It brilliantly illustrates how carbon dioxide travels around the world. The mesmerizing computer model makes it crystal clear that all countries of the world will have to act together to combat climate change:

More on the computer model they used to provide a new portrait of carbon dioxide:

An ultra-high-resolution NASA computer model has given scientists a stunning new look at how carbon dioxide in the atmosphere travels around the globe.

Plumes of carbon dioxide in the simulation swirl and shift as winds disperse the greenhouse gas away from its sources. The simulation also illustrates differences in carbon dioxide levels in the northern and southern hemispheres and distinct swings in global carbon dioxide concentrations as the growth cycle of plants and trees changes with the seasons.

Scientists have made ground-based measurements of carbon dioxide for decades and in July NASA launched the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) satellite to make global, space-based carbon observations. But the simulation – the product of a new computer model that is among the highest-resolution ever created – is the first to show in such fine detail how carbon dioxide actually moves through the atmosphere.

A key part of the NASA report:

In the spring of 2014, for the first time in modern history, atmospheric carbon dioxide – the key driver of global warming – exceeded 400 parts per million across most of the northern hemisphere. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide concentrations were about 270 parts per million. Concentrations of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere continue to increase, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.

Emphasis added. The evidence is clear—humans are having a dramatic effect on climate change—and we are all going to have to work together to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels before it's too late.