Carbon Dioxide Rate Rises, Records the Highest Mark in 4 Million Years

The amount of Carbon Dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has reached 419 parts per million in May, which is its highest level in more than four million years, according to what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had announced on Monday.After dipping last year because of the pandemic forced lockdowns, releases of greenhouse gases have begun to soar again as economies started to open and people continue to work and travel.

The newly released data about Carbon Dioxide levels in May show that the global community so far has failed to slow down the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, according to what NOAA said in its announcement. “We are adding roughly 40 billion metric tons of Carbon Dioxide pollution to the atmosphere per year,” told Pieter Tans, a senior scientist with NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory, in an announcement.

He further added, “If we want to avoid disastrous climate change, the highest priority must be to reduce CO2 pollution to zero at the earliest possible date.”Carbon Dioxide level for May is the monthly average of the atmospheric data as recorded by NOAA and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at a laboratory atop Hawaii’s Mauna Loa volcano.

NOAA’s monthly average from its dimensions came to 419.13 parts per million, and scientists from Scripps estimated their average to be 418.92. A year ago, the average was found to be 417 parts per million.The last time the atmosphere detained such similar amounts of Carbon Dioxide was during the Pliocene period, about 4.1 to 4.5 million years ago, NOAA said. At that time, sea levels were about 78 feet higher.