There’s no denying that the planet is facing a climate emergency. It’s bad and from the looks of things, it’s not going to get better anytime soon. There’s even more bad news. The latest readings taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawai’i show that CO2 levels on Earth have hit 415 parts per million. They’re now at their highest level since humanity began on this planet.
As some have pointed out, this is the first time in human history that the planet’s atmosphere has had more than 415 parts per million of CO2. That’s more than it has ever been in the millions of years since humanity first began on the planet.
CO2 or carbon dioxide levels last hit this peak some three million years ago. To put that in context, at that point in time, the average temperature in the Arctic was 60F. The north had trees back then, not ice, while sea levels are believed to have been at least 82 feet higher.
It’s alarming to note that not only are the CO2 levels at their highest point in recorded history, but they’re also still rising rapidly despite the Paris climate accord which was signed with the express purpose of curtailing CO2 in the atmosphere.
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