Alarming As CO2 Levels Reach their Highest for 800,000 YEARS: Record 400ppm

 

April’s average carbon dioxide reading was 401.33ppm, according to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego

CO2 readings come within a year of scientists warning the amount of the gas in the Earth’s atmosphere could stay beyond 400ppm

Earth had carbon dioxide levels of 280ppm before the Industrial Revolution

Rising levels of the gas in the atmosphere are thought to be caused by the burning of fossil fuels and therefore responsible for global warming

Readings were taken by the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii

For the first time in millennia, the average level of carbon dioxide has topped 400 parts per million (ppm) for an entire month.

 

April’s carbon dioxide readings come less than a year after scientists warned that the amount of the gas in the Earth’s atmosphere could surpass the 400ppm marker and stay there.

The gas is considered by many scientists to be responsible for global warming and has consistently breached the mark for a month – likely for the first time in 800,000 years.

April’s average carbon dioxide reading was 401.33ppm, according to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego.

The institution is the custodian of the longest continuous record of carbon dioxide measurements, which were started in the 1950s by Charles David Keeling on the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, USA Today reported.

CLIMATE CHANGE HAS INCREASED EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS

 

Climate change is already having an impact on every part of the US, according to a doom-laden report published by the Obama administration earlier this week.

The third U.S. National Climate Assessment says the number and strength of extreme weather events have increased over the past 50 years.

President Obama is set to use the paper to convince the American public on the need for a crackdown on greenhouse gas emissions.

The report, compiled by 300 experts and released by the White House, said: ‘Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present.

'More than half the US population lives in coastal areas that are ‘increasingly vulnerable’ to the effects of climate change, the report said.

And efforts to cut emissions so far are ‘insufficient to avoid increasingly negative social, environmental, and economic consequences’, it concluded