CO2 emissions reached record high in 2023 – IEA

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25 points·RetroTechie··4 comments

CO2 emissions are rising year on year, even as we approach the 1.5C mark (2031 or so) and hurtle towards 2C (2037 if memory serves). Even in countries where emissions per capita are dropping, not enough is being achieved. What's worse is that that IPCC acknowledges we'll exceed this:

> 1.5°C emission pathways are defined as those that, given current knowledge of the climate response, provide a one- in-two to two-in-three chance of warming either remaining below 1.5°C or returning to 1.5°C by around 2100 following an overshoot.[0]

[0]: https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/

CO2 remain in the atmosphere for more than a century. What is causing the change in climate is the cumulative amount of it since the start of the previous century, that was enough to unbalance the entire global system and push it to the increase of global average temperatures that we are seeing today.

Even if we stop emitting at all today, what is already up there will keep warming up the planet for many decades, with massive negative effects. And we know about that for many decades (Carl Sagan testified at the Congress in the 80's about that). And yet, we are not decreasing, not maintaining, but still increasing our emissions.

For our civilization it won't be an accidental death, but intended suicide.

Earth's human population is now estimated at over 8 billion. And probably a majority of those people are increasing their carbon consumption, not decreasing it, because they're in developing nations.

Yes, and expected to peak at 10.4 billion in 2086 although that may be an overestimate given how fast some of the East Asian countries' birth rates have plummeted in recent years.

For more info: https://ourworldindata.org/population-growth-over-time

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