A chemical analysis of ancient Antarctic ice shows that this decade’s numbers are truly unprecedented and are largely driven by human emissions.

‘In the past, CO2 levels have fluctuated due to ice age cycles and other natural causes, but today they are increasing due to human emissions,’ the research noted.

In order to corroborate these data, scientists used samples of ice that accumulated in Antarctica over hundreds of thousands of years, collected by drilling up to 3.2 kilometers deep, to analyze chemical traces and build records of past climate.

They also used ice core samples from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Division and identified a pattern showing that these leaps in carbon dioxide occurred in conjunction with cold North Atlantic intervals known as Heinrich Events that are associated with abrupt climate changes around the world.

‘The large changes in emissions are thought to be caused by a dramatic collapse of the North American ice sheet and this sets off a chain reaction involving changes in tropical monsoons, westerly winds in the Southern Hemisphere and these large burps of CO2 coming out of the oceans,’ the text stated.

The study further indicated that in the largest periods of the natural increases, carbon dioxide increased by about 14 parts per million in 55 years.

And the leaps occurred approximately once every 7,000 years; however, at the current rate, that magnitude of increase takes only five to six years.

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