- Current atmospheric concentration is around 417 ppm.
- The rate at which atmospheric CO2 concentration increases has been approximately 2-3 ppm per year over the past decade, as observed at monitoring stations like Mauna Loa.
If we hit 600 ppm and don't seem to be slowing down, maybe then I would worry about this but probably worry about ocean acidification before cognitive decline.
I have no expertise in this at all. How do they determine if cognitive effects only show up well above 1000? Is it possible that the testing methodologies aren't capable of detecting changes at a lower level?
Edit(
>In fact, at 1400 ppm, CO2 concentrations may cut our basic decision-making ability by 25 percent, and complex strategic thinking by around 50 percent, the authors found.
If this is a continuous scale, it could be affecting us at lower levels already
)
Further, isn't it reasonable to assume that regardless of the above, there will be 'hotspots' of c02 where the concentration may be hundreds of ppm higher than the average/background, at least temporarily (e.g. heavy industry centres, or cities in valleys)?
Edit:
The article mentions indoor levels are ~500 ppm higher than outdoor, so if a home is in one of my presumed hotspots, some people might be hitting these levels on occasion.
Oh, people hit that level all the time indoors. One person sleeping in a bedroom with a closed door overnight reaches high CO2 levels. A classroom of students are swimming in it.
I once stayed in a hotel with 1700 PPM in my room. It was a LEED Gold building sealed up tight. We didn't notice any cognitive issues but we made a point of not staying there long.
"Well over" is as little as 1500ppm. Definitely at 2500ppm. Reaching those numbers in poorly ventilated buildings is easy.
> - Current atmospheric concentration is around 417 ppm.
People mostly work indoors, so atmospheric concentration is not comparable.
> maybe then I would worry about this but probably worry about ocean acidification before cognitive decline.
True, you can always improve individual ventilation in rooms and houses until maybe 700-800ppm in the atmosphere, and at that level I would also worry about other things (ecosystem collapse, major weather events, fires and air pollution).
Indoor air is going to be at some concentration above ambient. Raise the ambient concentration and you raise the indoor concentration. There's already many of indoor concentrations that are problematic.
at that rate of increase (~300 years to reach 1000+) could we possibly adapt over time? There are probably already humans who are more/less susceptible to high c02 environments.
Individuals don’t adapt, a specie is through selection of best individuals. Since humans mostly managed to escape from selective pressure we are probably not going anywhere in such a short time I guess.
- Current atmospheric concentration is around 417 ppm.
- The rate at which atmospheric CO2 concentration increases has been approximately 2-3 ppm per year over the past decade, as observed at monitoring stations like Mauna Loa.
If we hit 600 ppm and don't seem to be slowing down, maybe then I would worry about this but probably worry about ocean acidification before cognitive decline.