The amount of carbon dioxide in the air has just gone up by the most ever, according to scientists who study the main gas that is warming the world. The global concentration of carbon dioxide in March was 4.7 ppm, which is the highest amount ever seen in a year.
It is thought that the rise in temperatures and the release of more greenhouse gases into the air are to blame for the El Nino weather event.
Ralph Keeling, who runs the CO2 Program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, said, “It’s really important to see how fast the rate of rise has been this year, which is also a record.” We are not only breaking records for the amount of CO2 in the air, but also for how fast it is climbing.
In Hawaii, the CO2 data have been taken from the station on top of Mauna Loa since the 1950s. The numbers have gone up every year, but last year’s reading was the biggest jump we’ve ever seen. The most recent reading from the volcano was 426 ppm. This is the highest level it has been in millions of years and more than a fifty percent higher than it was before humans lived.
The amount of CO2 stayed at 280 parts per million (ppm) for almost 6,000 years before it started to rise quickly. Keeling agreed with this and said, “The rate of rise will almost certainly come down, but it is still rising, and you need the CO2 level to be falling to keep the climate stable.”
“Clearly, that’s not going to happen,” he said next. CO2 levels have gone through the roof because of human activity. It really makes me sad. What we’re doing is sad.
