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Global Warming Is on Hold, Numbers Show

Global warming was the biggest scare of our generation, and it was terrifying indeed. Unlike the prospect of a nuclear war that would wipe us off the face of the Earth in one clean move, the rising temperatures were to cook us slowly until you wouldn't need a kettle to make tea.
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It all had to do with greenhouse gasses, and our apparent affinity to release them into the atmosphere. However, global warming had its skeptics, people who called the measures taken to contain it futile, but recent developments show they were wrong. For three years in a row, the emissions of greenhouse gasses appear to have frozen.

This good news comes from the Global Carbon Project, an initiative that measures how much CO2 is emitted by human activity into the atmosphere, and how much is absorbed by the environment. Subtracting the latter from the former gives us the quantity of CO2 that remains trapped in the atmosphere where it accentuates the greenhouse effect.

Of all the volatile substances that fall into this category, it was the concentration of carbon dioxide that humans have the biggest impact on. As you are probably well aware, transportation is one of the contributors to the increase in CO2 levels over the past decades. Personal cars don't really play such a big role with ships and airplanes doing a lot more damage, but it was believed we were at a point where every little bit counted.

While carmakers have indeed started to show much more consideration toward the levels of CO2 emitted by their vehicles, the real change came from the U.S. and China. Arguably the world's two largest economies reduced their dependency on coal with immediate effects: CO2 emissions in the U.S.A. and China are expected to drop by 1.7 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, according to Green Car Reports.

Of course, after the steady rise over the past two centuries, holding emissions steady at a very high level isn't enough. The next step would be bringing them down to an acceptable level, and it certainly looks like the automotive world is doing its bit with every brand out there planning to release countless electric vehicles. The only thing now is that the energy industry chips in and finds a way to deliver clean electricity for all these EVs.
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About the author: Vlad Mitrache
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"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie)
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