If the amount of CO2 continues to rise, the Earth will return to the period of dinosaurs

Our planet is warming up due to excessive carbon dioxide emissions which is an undisputed fact, but according to a new study, global warming can create an unprecedented climate. seen since 420 million years ago.

If humanity continues to exploit fossil fuels across the planet until 2250, we may face CO ₂ concentrations never seen since the Triassic period 200 million years ago, according to the researchers. And by 2400, the level of CO ₂ could exceed every limit recorded in geological records.

To assess how the amount of CO2 in the air has changed over the past 420 million years, researchers at the University of Southampton have compiled approximately 1,500 estimates of atmospheric CO2 and have been published in 112 studies.

By 2400, the level of CO2 could exceed all the limits recorded in the geological record.

"We cannot directly measure CO2 concentrations from millions of years ago," said geologist chemist Gavin Foster of the University of Southampton. "Rather than relying on evidence in rocky soil. In the study, we have compiled estimates based on all available materials from various studies to create a graph showing the level of of CO2 in the air ".

Some other analyzes of the group also show that, although current CO2 levels are much lower than some hot periods in Earth's history, our current temperature is increasing rapidly. .

CO2 concentration reached 280 parts per million (ppm) in the pre-industrialization period, but by 2016 it increased to 400ppm. This is an unprecedented rapid increase but it is still far below the Earth's "greenhouse" period, when CO2 concentration reaches 3,000ppm.

But in addition to the fact that humans have increased CO ₂ emissions rapidly over the past two centuries, the end of a period when natural carbon dioxide emissions have fallen for hundreds of millions of years is worthwhile. more afraid.

"Because of the nuclear reactions in stars, typically the Sun, over time they are getting brighter," said climate scientist Dan Lunt from the University of Bristol. "That means, although the concentration of CO2 hundreds of millions of years ago is very high, the warming effect it produces and the amount of sunlight is less."

In other words, the level of the Sun's energy affecting the Earth's climate (or total solar radiation) has gradually increased from hundreds of millions of years ago because the Sun is getting brighter. But the Earth's climate kept it stable by decreasing the amount of CO ₂ during this period.

That is until now.

Today, as the amount of CO2 and solar radiation increases, the climate impact is extremely clear. The team thinks there will be many unprecedented dangerous climates that humans may encounter in the future.

Climate change will happen faster than anything Earth has experienced in millions of years.

"If all fossil fuels are used up, the climate impact will be immense. Geological parameters will exceed the limit and this will happen only 420 million years ago," Foster explained. If fossil fuels continue to be used, researchers estimate CO ₂ will reach 2,000 ppm by 2250 - an unprecedented level from about 200 million years ago in the Triassic period.

"The Sun, however, has less light and the climate impact of 200 million years ago is less than what we will experience when CO2 concentrations increase in the future," Foster said in one. Press Release. "So climate change will happen faster than anything Earth has experienced in millions of years, and the climate in the Earth will also lack balance, as it happened in 420. million years ago ".

With these forecasts, it's hard to say for sure how the environment will change in the future. A study published in 2015 showed that if mankind switched to renewable energy after using the remaining fossil fuel, Antarctica would melt and the sea level could rise to 60m. . It is truly a prospect no one wants to see.

* Triassic: a hot and dry era in Earth's history, when the two poles of the planet were free of ice and the first dinosaurs appeared.