The concentration of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere, one of the main components of the Earth's Green House effect, last year reached levels not registered for millions of years, when the temperature was two or three degrees centigrade over current levels, according to a report presented just hours ago.

The World Meteorological Organization warned that the CO2 overcame the symbolic barrier of four hundred parts for every million molecules of air, reaching four hundred and three point three, a level that poses a serious threat to the survival of humankind.

Many, many years ago, in the Pleistocene geological epoch, the huge glaciers in Greenland and Western Antartica melted, leading to an increase of ten to twenty meters in the level of the oceans, just before the Earth ended its cooling off period that led to the current temperatures.

The main causes for the increase in the concentration of that gas are two fold.. One is the so-called El Niño effect, which registered unsual force in 2016 and prevented the Earth and the Ecuatorial forests from absorbing a larger amount of CO2.

The other cause, even more serious, is the effect of human activity. Despite international treaties and pledges made by the industrial nations, that have promised to abstain from further contaminating the atmosphere, the truth is that not less than ninety billion tons of heavy pollutants continue to be vomited every year into the skies by industrial nations, a really incredible amount that very seriously threatens the survival of humankind in our planet.

One of the many diseases spread by the contaminants is the progressive reduction of the wooded areas on Earth, a disease that joins forest fires and the destruction of wooded areas for the expansion of commercial agriculture. Also contributing to the destruction of forests are the opening of new urban areas and the expansion of open air mining operations.

Last year, the Earth's forests lost twenty nine point seven million hectares, an increase of fifty one percent over twenty fifteen.

An additional problem is the ever increasing concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, with grave effects on the long term because of the reduction of wooded areas, that absorb CO2. Therefore, the atmosphere is increasingly being polluted by this gas, which contributes to rising temperatures in our planet.

Consequently, it will be almost impossible to fulfill the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, especially preventing the global temperature from rising two degrees centigrade, while the pollution of the Earth's atmosphere continues unchecked.

The human being, in his pursuit of pleasure and well being, is turning Mother Earth into an uninhabitable place, incompatible with life. And the question is: How long do we have?