Why do we need to rapidly reduce CO2 emissions?
The amount of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere (the CO2 concentration) is one of the main controls on the temperature of Earth. Because of fossil fuel burning, the CO2 concentration has already risen from 280 ppm to well over 400 ppm.
Will leveling off the amount of CO2 we're emitting to the atmosphere stop the increase in CO2 concentration? No! In this video, we demonstrate that reducing human CO2 emissions to nearly zero is necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change.