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Greenhouse-Gas Levels Reach New Heights

Buddhika Weerasinghe
/
Getty Images

Greenhouse gas emissions have reached a new height, UPI reports.

The last few years have witnessed growing support for an effort to combat climate change. Even so, a new World Meteorological Organization report finds rising levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The report noted that, since 1990, there has been a 37 percent increase in the warming impact on the climate because of greenhouse gases like CO2, methane and nitrous oxide.

Carbon dioxide levels have now reached a threshold that has long been feared by climatologists. The potent greenhouse gas now makes up 400 parts per million in the atmosphere for the first time on record. WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas called CO2 the “elephant in the room.” Taalas pointed out that carbon dioxide “remains in the atmosphere for thousands of years and in the oceans for even longer.”