Global Warming Threshold Crossed Is Another Red Flag For Planet
By Greenpeace Australia Pacific
16 May, 2016
Countercurrents.org
Sydney, 16 May 2016 - As another key global warming threshold was passed with baseline readings of 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Greenpeace Australia Pacific today urged Labor and the Coalition to take more ambitious positions on climate change and Australia’s coal industry.
“This is yet another red flag for our climate,” said Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner, Nikola Čašule.
“This year alone we have broken average temperature records month after month. We have seen the worst bleaching ever of the Great Barrier Reef and 1000 year old rainforests destroyed by bushfires in Tasmania. This is what climate change looks like. It’s real and it’s happening right in front of our eyes.
“The CSIRO monitoring station at Cape Grim has some of the cleanest air in the world. It is as pure as you’ll find on the planet - and it’s this air that’s giving us a baseline reading of 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide.
“We know that anything above 350ppm poses a threat to our planet’s climate. With the crossing of the 400ppm threshold, we are now in uncharted territory.
“As politicians focus on the short term, trying to get elected, people in the real world are furious that our future is being put at risk, as coal mines and other fossil fuel projects are being bankrolled with federal subsidies, while the climate suffers.
“It’s time for both major parties to get serious about climate change and put in place plans to phase out the mining and burning of coal before it’s too late,” said Dr Casule.
The Cape Grim monitoring site, jointly run by CSIRO and the Bureau of Meteorology, has recorded the first baseline reading of 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Ice core readings show levels have fluctuated around 280 ppm until the industrial revolution, when they began steadily increasing. When Cape Grim began recording levels in 1976 they were around 330 ppm.
For interviews, contact Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner Nikola Čašule on 0428 769 307
For more information, contact Greenpeace Media Officer, Louise Fraser on 0438 993 068
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Communications & Media Desk
Greenpeace Australia Pacific
+61 2 9263 0320