They record the highest levels of carbon dioxide in human history – Escambray

The average monthly carbon dioxide (CO2) exceeded 420 parts per million (ppm) in April, the highest level since accurate measurements began 64 years ago.

For the first time since records began, carbon dioxide levels on Earth have reached the highest level ever recorded in human history, new data released by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, Los Angeles, shows. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

According to the two agencies, monthly average levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) exceeded 420 parts per million (ppm) in April, their highest peak since accurate measurements began 64 years ago, and even reached 421.33 parts per million in one day of the week. past, as greenhouse gases. Emissions continue to rise around the world.

Data from the University of California San Diego Scripps’ Oceanographic Institution reported that the average monthly baseline for carbon dioxide (CO2) for April 2022 at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii was 420.02 parts per million. Records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in the early days of May, showed that levels reached 421.33 parts per million on May 4, 2022.

Data collected at the mountaintop observatory on Mauna Loa in Hawaii also confirmed that last year was the first year that atmospheric carbon dioxide exceeded pre-industrial levels by more than 50 percent. These are record numbers in the entire history of mankind.

Twenty years ago, the highest month of the year was 375.93 parts per million. The annual increase in carbon dioxide concentration (ppm/year) has accelerated in recent years, so the COVID-19 pandemic has not put an end to the decline in carbon dioxide emissions due to a partial shutdown of activity or a decrease in the transport of goods and travelers around the world due to the epidemic.

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere does not depend on annual emissions, but on the total emissions that have accumulated in the atmosphere. Unfortunately for our planet, carbon dioxide is a long-lived gas that is estimated to continue to irreversibly warm the atmosphere due to the greenhouse effect.

“May is likely to be higher than that,” said Axios Peter Tans, chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Monitoring and Diagnostic Laboratory. “We really need to focus on reducing emissions and we haven’t had much success globally because the rate of CO2 increase is still as high as it has been in the last decade.”