Andrea Thompson of Climate Central reports the shocking news that the measured levels of atmospheric CO2 has remained above 400 ppm for the third month in a row, in New CO2 Milestone: 3 Months Above 400 PPM, levels higher than have existed earth for "somewhere between 800,000 and 1.5 million years. Wow! That's a lot of years.
And while the 400 ppm mark is somewhat symbolic (as the increase in warming between 399 ppm and 400 ppm is small), it serves to show how much carbon dioxide has been put into the atmosphere since preindustrial times, when concentrations were around 280 ppm. The increase in this and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has warmed Earth’s average temperature by 1.6°F since the beginning of the 20th century. World leaders agreed at a UN summit in 2009 to limit warming to 3.6°F, but prominent climate scientists like James Hansen have said that amount of warming will still be too much.
The world first passed the 400 ppm milestone on May 9, 2013. The first 400 ppm measurement of 2014 came two months earlier. CO2 concentrations at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, which have been monitored since 1958, have been steadily above that level since the beginning of April, which marked the first full month with an average CO2 level above 400 ppm.
"It still feels a bit surreal now to be reporting concentrations over 400 ppm,” Ralph Keeling, who runs the monitoring program at Mauna Loa, told Climate Central after the April milestone. “Even though it was pretty much inevitable that we would get to this point, it still takes some getting used to.” (Keeling’s father, Charles, began the monitoring effort, and the graph showing the rise of CO2 over time is known as the Keeling Curve.)
We must urgently and dramatically reduce the amount of new carbon dioxide we add to the atmosphere which means stopping the burning of fossil fuels. We have alternatives available with solar, wind, and other clean renewable energy that create jobs in the process of transition. Most other countries are seeing this transition as an opportunity to stimulate and modernize their economies. We must wake up and do the same.
It's time to start building a better tomorrow today, by eliminating coal and fossil fuel plants as fast as we can and replacing them with clean renewable solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal energy.
Website of the NOAA : Up-to-date weekly average CO2 at Mauna Loa
U.S. Department of Commerce National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration NOAA Research