For thousands of years, the amount of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere remained around 275 parts per million, but as seen in the graph below, that value started to increase in the mid-19th century, and then steeply increased to the year 2000 and beyond. This increase has been attributed to the industrial revolution which started in Europe, and has spread about the world.

Image: Historical record of CO2 emissions based on ice core and atmospheric data

We need CO2 in the atmosphere to maintain a temperature that makes the Earth livable. Without CO2, the Earth’s temperature would be freezing or below; now it is 57 degrees, and has been for thousands of years. Too much CO2 will increase the Earth’s temperature, and in recent years, the result of this upward graph has been global warming. We are not going to produce a Venus, where its atmosphere is 90% CO2, and its surface temperature about 800 degrees. But we seem to be headed in direction of putting more CO2 in the ocean of air, and causing a number of changes: increase in temperature; more intense storms; more droughts; shrinkage of the ice sheets; the rising of sea level; melting of permafrost; and a host of biological changes, such as change in migration patterns of birds and butterflies.

Right now the USA leads the world in carbon emissions, as seen in the listing by countries below.

Rank by Country, Annual CO2 emissions, and Percentage of total
1–United States–5,872.278–24.3%
2–European Union–3,682,755–15.3%
3–China–3,300,371–14.5%
4–Russia–1,432,513–5.9%
5–India–1,220,926–5.1%
6–Japan–1,203,535–5.0%
7–Germany–804,701–3.3%
8–U.K–544,813–2.3%
9–Canada–517,157–2.1%
10–South Korea–446,190–1.8%
11–Italy–433,018–1.8%
12–Mexico–383,671–1.6%

Tackling the CO2 emission problem can be better understood by looking at the contribution of CO2 by regions of the world. The graph below compares North America, Western Europe, and Pacific Developed Nations with Former USSR, Central & Eastern Europe, and the Rest of the World.

If we continue increasing the amount of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, the Earth’s temperature will continue to rise, and as I’ve indicated some computer models show that the temperature could increase from 3 to 8 degrees, which would be catastrophic. The Kyoto Protocol called for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but that treaty will run its course very soon.

Now individual nations and some US states are taking the lead and proposing laws to reduce carbon emissions. Yesterday I mentioned that the UK will reduce carbon emissions by 60% by 2050, and the European Union will reduce by about 25%.

The US needs to take action, and take a more responsible role in curbing CO2, and stop playing childish games including ignoring the scientific results created by its own scientists! Al Gore has certainly raised the attention of a lot of people. But he is not enough. There is still too much controversy around his film and book (even though most scientists agree that the science in the work is sound). It is going to take a concerned citizenry who will vote for politicians who take the environment seriously, and are willing to look into the future and make use of the results of science to inform policy.

If you are a teacher, you might find the following discussion a valuable source of ideas to involve your students in global warming action initiatives. If you go to the website Step It Up you will be introduced to Mr. Bill McKibben who is rallying to take action against global warming. McKibben is author of the book, The End of Nature (published some years ago). McKibben is inviting individuals and groups to take one day, April 14, 2007, to participate in nation-wide rallies and asking Congress to Step Up and reduce carbon emissions by 80% in the USA. He’ll then link pictures on the web to expand the power of the day’s rallies. The map below shows the distribution of rallies already planned. You can follow up by linking to the StepUp Site.