Simplified drawing of the history and future of the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere
Left part of the diagramm has a logarithmic scale showing the last 100 million years. Present mean CO2 concentration (middle) is with about 380 ppm (2006) already higher than during the last 2 million years. The right side of the diagramm has a linear scale representing the future 300 years. Also the ordinate has a non-linear scale with a range of CO2 values from 0 to 5000 ppm (parts per million).
CO2 concentration during the Cretaceous (> 60 million years) was much higher than today. It descreased with temperature during the Tertiary (60-2 million years) when the earth was cooling down into the recent ice age. The Quaternary is represented by climatic (i.e. CO2) variations from 2 million years until today. The arrow pointing into the future shows the natural development; the rapid increase in CO2, predicted for the next 300 years, is due to the increased burning of fossil fuel by humankind, starting with the industrial age. The area of the question mark shows the uncertainty in predicting future carbon dioxide concentrations.
verbreitet werden – vervielfältigt, verbreitet und öffentlich zugänglich gemacht werden
neu zusammengestellt werden – abgewandelt und bearbeitet werden
Zu den folgenden Bedingungen:
Namensnennung – Du musst angemessene Urheber- und Rechteangaben machen, einen Link zur Lizenz beifügen und angeben, ob Änderungen vorgenommen wurden. Diese Angaben dürfen in jeder angemessenen Art und Weise gemacht werden, allerdings nicht so, dass der Eindruck entsteht, der Lizenzgeber unterstütze gerade dich oder deine Nutzung besonders.