CO2 growth in 2018 was the fourth highest ever recorded

March 22 (UPI) – The concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere has increased from 2.87 parts per million to NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory in 2018, the fourth-largest increase in 60 years of record-keeping. l & # 39; agency.

On January 1, 2018, the average concentration of atmospheric CO2 was 407.05 parts per million. Twelve months later, the average was 409.92 parts per million.

Three of the four highest recorded annual increases have occurred over the past four years.

The record belongs to 2016, the year when CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere jumped 3.01 parts per million. Second place goes to 2015, with an increase of 2.98 parts per million. The increase last year is just behind the 2.93 ppt growth in 1998.

Last year, however, the past year has not been disappointing. Last April, for the first time, the average CO2 concentration was above 410 ppm for a whole month.

"At a time when there is so much talk of reducing CO2 emissions, the amount of CO2 we release into the atmosphere is accelerating clearly," said Pieter Tans, senior scientist to the NOAA Global Monitoring Division, in a press release. . "It's no coincidence that the last four years have also recorded the highest CO2 emissions ever recorded."

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and the main cause of global warming. Climate scientists agree that human sources of CO2 are at the root of the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

"The current increase in CO2 is dominated by human activities," said Tans. "This is not natural."

After several years of capping carbon emissions in the United States, the United States has seen a return to growth in its CO2 emissions in 2018. According to data collected by the independent research firm Rhodium Group, increased by 3.4% in 2018.

After a global increase of 2.7%, according to the Global Carbon Project, global carbon emissions reached an unprecedented level in 2018.

NOAA scientists daily analyze atmospheric samples at several monitoring sites, but researchers have been keeping records for the longest time at the Mauna Loa Observatory.