Scientists have been studying our planet’s history, and they found out that the air around us, our atmosphere, hasn’t been like this in a really, really long time – about 14 million years!
Scientists have been looking into the past, all the way back to 66 million years ago. That’s way before dinosaurs went extinct. They did this by studying old plants, minerals, and tiny sea creatures to understand what the air was like back then. What they found is a bit worrying.
Right now, our air has a lot of carbon dioxide, which is a gas that’s not good in large amounts. It’s like a blanket around our Earth, trapping heat and making our planet warmer. This gas is measured in parts per million (ppm), and right now, we have about 420 ppm in our atmosphere.
The last time it was this high was millions of years ago when Earth looked very different. There were no humans, Greenland had no ice, and the world was a lot warmer.
Before the late 1700s, before factories and cars, the amount of this gas in the air was much lower, around 280 ppm. But since we started using fossil fuels like coal and oil, we’ve added much more carbon dioxide to the air.
This change is huge because our species, humans, evolved when the carbon dioxide levels were much lower. Our cities, farms, and lives are built for a world with less of this gas. But if we keep adding more, we could reach levels that Earth hasn’t seen in tens of millions of years. This could mean big changes, like melting ice caps and different plants and animals.
It’s not just about the temperature going up a little bit. This change can affect everything – where we can live, grow food, and how we deal with weather like storms and heat waves.
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The scientists say we’ve been in this situation for a long time. It took Earth thousands of years to adjust the last time something like this happened. But there’s a bit of hope. If we start reducing how much carbon dioxide we put into the air and maybe even find ways to take some out, we can help slow down these changes.
It’s a big challenge, but understanding what’s happening and why it matters is the first step. Let’s think about how we can all help our planet.
