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Photo: Dawin Meckel / Ostkreuz / DER SPIEGEL
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Haug, a fluctuation of 100 ppm CO2 within almost a million years doesn't sound particularly spectacular to laypeople.
Haug: But
this fluctuation makes the difference between a more than 1000 meter thick layer of ice over New York City and the lush deciduous forests of today.
Now I would ask you to take a close look at the end of the curve here.
I enlarged it, because it's the last 50 years.
The proportion of carbon dioxide rose by almost ...
SPIEGEL:
... 100 ppm.
Haug:
Right.
Since my birth, i.e. in a good 50 years, man has produced the same amount of carbon dioxide by burning fossil materials as is produced by natural processes in 6000 years during the transition from an ice age to a warm period.
SPIEGEL:
And greenhouse gas emissions will continue unabated.
Haug:
Here you can see the famous Keeling curve.
It shows the CO2 concentration measured at the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii.
This year we hit 418 ppm.
If forests and oceans didn't absorb some of the CO2, we would be at 540 ppm.
We would have already missed the two-degree target, which we should absolutely adhere to.
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