Telling Numbers: Carbon dioxide levels are now comparable to 4 million years ago

Compared to the 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution, the currently 420 ppm is 50% higher than those levels.

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Compared to the 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution, the currently 420 ppm is 50% higher than those levels.

Carbon dioxide measured at the Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory, Hawaii, run by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), peaked for 2022 at 421 parts per million in May. This has pushed the atmosphere further into territory not seen for millions of years, scientists from NOAA and Scripps Institution of Oceanography announced last week.

NOAA’s measurements averaged 420.99 parts per million (ppm), an increase of 1.8 ppm over 2021. Scientists at Scripps independently calculated a monthly average of 420.78 ppm.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels were consistently around 280 ppm for almost 6,000 years of human civilisation. Since then, humans have generated an estimated 1.5 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution, much of which will continue to warm the atmosphere for thousands of years, NOAA said.

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Compared to the 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution, the currently 420 ppm is 50% higher than those levels.

“The science is irrefutable: humans are altering our climate in ways that our economy and our infrastructure must adapt to,” an NOAA statement quoted its Administrator Rick Spinrad as saying.

Source: NOAA

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