- Jan 28, 2025
- 279
- 265
- 54
- Country
- Belgium
- Gender
- Male
- Faith
- Humanist
- Marital Status
- Private
In July, a team of scientists assembled on a video call to study an anomalous wobble in a data curve. This blip didn’t signal a new particle decay in an atom smasher or the passage of a planet across the face of a distant star. Instead, it was a surprising decline in a quantity that has grown relentlessly throughout the Industrial Age: the amount of planet-warming greenhouse gases dumped by humanity into the atmosphere each year.
For several years now, peak carbon—the point when humanity starts to emit less carbon dioxide (CO2) than it did the year before—has lingered just out of reach, as overall emissions have crept up by some 1% each year. Although Europe and the United States reached peak carbon years ago, society’s collective load on the atmosphere has resisted any lasting downward trend, though it did drop briefly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For several years now, peak carbon—the point when humanity starts to emit less carbon dioxide (CO2) than it did the year before—has lingered just out of reach, as overall emissions have crept up by some 1% each year. Although Europe and the United States reached peak carbon years ago, society’s collective load on the atmosphere has resisted any lasting downward trend, though it did drop briefly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
