CO2 levels hit record high

Coronavirus lockdowns led to a big drop in global greenhouse gas emissions—but they weren’t enough to stop atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reaching their highest point since records began 63 years ago. Atmospheric CO2 reached a monthly average in May of nearly 419 parts per million, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That’s up from 417 parts per million in May 2020; daily levels have twice exceeded 420 parts per million so far this year. Scientists weren’t surprised by the increasing CO2 concentration, reports The Washington Post. But many are troubled by the fact that the drop in emissions during the pandemic didn’t really slow the increase. “At certain points, more than half the world’s population was under lockdown, and emissions only fell 6 percent,” says Jason Bordoff, from Columbia University. “[That] should be a sobering reminder of how staggeringly hard it will be to get to net zero and how much more work we have to do.”

2028 and 2030, reports TheAtlantic.com. NASA says that while Venus is “hot, hellish, and unforgiving”—it has a surface temperature of 900 degrees—the planet is worth examining because it has “so many characteristics similar to ours.” The first mission, DAVINCI+, will analyze gases as it plunges through Venus’ ultradense atmosphere and will try to determine whether the planet ever had an ocean. The second mission, VERITAS, will orbit Venus, charting its topography with radar and mapping infrared emissions to examine rock types. “The combined results of these missions will tell us about the planet from the clouds in its sky through the volcanoes on its surface all the way down to its very core,” says NASA’s Tom Wagner. “It will be as if we rediscovered the planet.” Venus became a hot astronomical topic last year, when a team of scientists said they’d found signs that microbes might be living in the planet’s clouds. DAVINCI+ could potentially confirm whether or not that evidence actually exists.