Original article (in Slovenian) was published on 15/1/2024; Author: Žan Premrov
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have reached new highs, according to the World Meteorological Organisation.
In an interview published by the Demokracija portal on 7 January, economist Vito Bobek claimed that “in fact, never in the past have CO2 emissions been as low as they are now”. The interview was originally published in the print edition of Demokracija.
Bobek went on to say that carbon dioxide (CO2) is odourless and colourless, and expressed his disbelief as to why politicians perceive this gas as a pollutant. He pointed out that there are 400 parts per million (ppm) of CO2 in the atmosphere.
The Environment Agency explained to Razkrinkavanje.si that the current concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are the highest since measurements began. They shared a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from March last year which found that atmospheric CO2 concentrations (410 ppm) were “higher than at any time in at least the last two million years”.
According to the annual report of the Global Monitoring Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a federal agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce, the global average of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 2022 was 417.06 parts per million (ppm), a new record high. CO2 levels have been rising rapidly over the last 11 years, according to these figures.
They pointed out that CO2 levels increased by 2.13 ppm last year compared to 2021. This was the 11th consecutive year in which the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by more than 2 ppm.
The World Meteorological Organisation also warned in its 2022 report that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are at their highest levels. That year, the global average atmospheric concentration of CO2 was the highest since measurements began in 1984, at 417.9 ppm. Record levels of two other greenhouse gases, methane, and nitrous oxide, were also measured.
Razkrinkavanje has shared the findings with Demokracija and Bobek, the interviewed economist. Bobek provided the editorial team with an infographic on CO2 levels from the Cambrian to the present day, i.e. for at least 542 million years, which was supposedly published in a textbook by Yale University in the United States.
The source of the data in the infographic is supposed to be a study published in 2001 in the American Journal of Science, but no such data exists in the study in question.
Democracy did not reply to Razkrinkavanje’s questions.
Bobek’s claim that “never in the past have CO2 emissions been as low as they are now” is false.