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June 4th (UPI) – The highest levels of carbon dioxide concentration in human history have been recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.
During the month of May, CO2 levels reached an average of 414.8 parts per million – levels that had not existed on Earth for millions of years.
CO2 levels are generally highest in Mauna Loa around this time of year, but carbon dioxide levels have been steadily increasing in recent decades. The peak of this year was 3.5 parts per million above the peak of 411.3 parts per million last year.
Climatologists agree that increasing atmospheric CO2, resulting from the burning of oil, gas and other fossil fuels, is responsible for rising temperatures worldwide.
"Many proposals have been made to mitigate global warming, but without a rapid decrease in fossil fuel CO2 emissions, they are almost futile," said Pieter Tans, senior scientist at NOAA's global monitoring division, at USA Today.
Carbon dioxide is the most abundant greenhouse gas, but levels of other gases that heat the planet, such as methane, are also increasing. NOAA follows several.
Earlier this year, NOAA announced that the annual greenhouse gas index, a measure of greenhouse gas emissions and their impact on the heat trapping ability of the greenhouse gas, can be found in the annual report. atmosphere, had reached a value of 1.43.
"Greenhouse gas pollution traps heat in the atmosphere, which has consequences," said James Butler, director of NOAA's global monitoring division, in a press release. "There is no way out – the burning of fossil fuels is changing the course of the future of our planet.The way society will deal with this problem will be a major challenge in the future. decades to come. "
The agency also announced that CO2 levels had increased at a record rate in 2018, echoing findings from other studies that carbon emissions had increased worldwide after a few years of minimal growth.
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