危险！全球二氧化碳浓度再创新高

世界气象组织（WMO）于上周发布的报道称，全球二氧化碳浓度2017年的平均水平达到了405.5ppm（百万分之一），创自有人类活动记录以来的历史新高。甲烷、氮氧化合物、甚至是臭氧杀手CFC-11的浓度均有所增加。

世界气象组织的秘书长佩特里·塔拉斯在一份声明中提到：“科学明确地告诉我们，如果二氧化碳和其他温室气体的排放量得不到迅速的降低，那么气候变化的破坏力将越来越大，而且会对地球上的生命造成不可逆转的影响。上一次地球出现类似的二氧化碳浓度还是300至500万年之前，那时候温度比现在高2至3摄氏度，海平面也高出了10到20米。”

东英吉利亚大学的气候科学家科林内·勒·奎乐向《卫报》透露：“像风能、太阳能和电力交通这类低碳技术应成为主流。”

曼尼托巴大学的能源与环境科学家瓦克拉夫·斯米尔说，即便上述技术发展的再快，也无法阻止整个气候的变化。他在《IEEE Spectrum》杂志中写道：“其中的一些技术在未来几十年中可能会出现一些相对较快的变化，但它们不会像微处理器那样，呈现出指数式的跨越式发展。”

世界气象组织在上周发布的报告将有助于下个月齐聚波兰卡托维兹的各方讨论国际气候变化协议和规定。（财富中文网）

译者：冯丰

审校：夏林

Global carbon dioxide concentrations reached an average of 405.5 parts per million in 2017, a record high since human record-keeping began, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported last week. Methane, nitrous oxide, and even ozone-eating CFC-11 were up, too.

“The science is clear. Without rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gases, climate change will have increasingly destructive and irreversible impacts on life on Earth,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. “The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago, when the temperature was 2-3°C warmer and sea level was 10-20 meters higher than now.”

“Low-carbon technologies like wind, solar, and electric transport need to become mainstream,” climate scientist Corinne Le Quéré of the University of East Anglia told The Guardian.

That is unlikely to happen fast enough to stop climate change altogether, says energy and environmental scientist Vaclav Smil of the University of Manitoba. “Some of these processes may well see some relatively fast changes in decades ahead, but they will not follow microchip-like exponential rates of improvement,” he writes in IEEE Spectrum Magazine.

Last week’s WMO report will be grist for discussion at next month’s Katowice, Poland, meeting to discuss international climate change agreements and rules.