CO2 levels continue to soar
father Charles David Keeling have kept carbon dioxide (CO2) measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii since 1958.
The average concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide was 410.31 parts per million (ppm) for April, according to the Keeling Curve measurement series.
This marks the first time in the history of the Mauna Loa record that a monthly average has exceeded 410 parts per million. It’s also a 30% increase in carbon dioxide concentration in the global atmosphere since the Keeling Curve began in 1958.
‘‘As a scientist, what concerns me the most is not that we have passed yet another round-number threshold but what this continued rise actually means: that we are continuing full speed ahead with an unprecedented experiment with our planet, the only home we have,’’ Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University, tweeted Thursday.
Carbon dioxide is called a greenhouse gas for its ability to trap solar radiation and keep it confined to the atmosphere. It is the most prevalent among all greenhouse gases produced by human activities, attributed to the burning of fossil fuels.
The increase in gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide is fueling climate change and making ‘‘the planet more dangerous and inhospitable for future generations,’’ the World Meteorological Organization has said.
Increasing amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases are enhancing the planet’s natural ‘‘greenhouse effect.’’ CO2 levels were around 280 parts per million before the Industrial Revolution in the late 1800s, when large amounts of greenhouse gases began to be released by burning fossil fuels.
The burning of the oil, gas and coal for energy releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. These gases have caused the Earth’s temperature to rise over the past century to levels that cannot be explained by natural variability.
Carbon dioxide is invisible, odourless and colourless, yet it’s responsible for 63 per cent of warming attributable to all greenhouse gases, according to NOAA’S Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado.
Levels of carbon dioxide fluctuate each year, reaching their highest levels in May and receding in the fall as plants absorb the gas. – USA Today