‘Humans Are Bigger Polluters Than Volcanoes’

In News

According to a latest study, human activities are releasing 100 times more carbon into the atmosphere each year than all the volcanoes combined on Earth.

In-Detail

• The study conducted by the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) outlined how carbon is stored, emitted and reabsorbed by natural and manmade processes.
• It found that humans are emitting more carbon dioxide than volcanoes.
• Human activities are fast outstripping CO2 emissions of volcanoes which are often treated as the cause for climate change.
• As per the study, humans in 2018 alone released 37 gigatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.
• This, when compared with volcanoes’ emissions of 0.3-0.4 gigatonnes, is 100 times more.
• The modern-day human emissions resemble the erstwhile carbon shocks that led to mass extinctions on the planet, the study says.

Deep Carbon Observatory

• Formed in 2009, DCO is a global research program that will help the world to understand the role of carbon in Earth.
• The research group includes geologists, biologists, scientists, physicists, and chemists.
• They all work together to develop new deep carbon science.
• In 2018, they made a major discovery that major life forms on earth including 70% of bacteria and archaea account for 23 billion tonnes of carbon and they live even at a depth of 4.8 km underground and 2.5 km below the seabed.

Also Read: States Fiscal Position Improves: RBI