The Climate Is Changing, and New data shows that humans have never seen it this high.
Data from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii showed that carbon dioxide levels surpassed 415 parts per million on Friday.
Data from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego show Carbon dioxide concentrations have rocketed higher than any levels in the last 800,000 year, and levels have not been this high for millions of years.
For context, in the 800,000 years before the Industrial Revolution, CO2 levels didn’t surpass 300 ppm.
Homo-sapiens ( Modern Humans ) didn’t evolve until about 300,000 years ago, and some of their predecessors were around some 2 million years ago.
Using computer simulations along with paleoclimatic data, a study earlier this year reported that carbon dioxide has reached levels in our atmosphere not seen in 3 million years.
Ralph Keeling, the director of the Scripps program that tracks CO2 concentrations said in a statement, “The average growth rate is remaining on the high end. The increase from last year will probably be around three parts per million whereas the recent average has been 2.5 ppm.”
Keeling and his late father Charles David Keeling are best known for creating the Keeling Curve, a well-known graph that shows CO2 Concentrations
Looking ahead, yet another recent study found that CO2 emissions could soar to levels not seen in 56 million years by the middle of next century, scientists warned in a study Wednesday.
