At a federal research lab located at 11,135 feet (3,397 meters) of elevation, U.S. scientists measured a consequential record.
Due to its remoteness in the Pacific Ocean, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory, located high up in Hawaii, is tasked with taking untainted, daily atmospheric measurements. On June 6, NOAA revealed evidence that the heat-trapping gas carbon dioxide is “accumulating in the atmosphere faster than ever — accelerating on a steep rise to levels far above any experienced during human existence.”
This May, atmospheric CO2 levels hit 427 parts per million, or ppm, an almost 3 ppm increase since last May (annually CO2 levels peak in May, due to natural global fluctuations) and the highest peak ever recorded. What’s more, combining the increases since 2022 results in the largest two-year CO2 leap on record.
The lab’s continuous record paints a clear picture of how the atmosphere has changed since the late 1950s. Yet, when added to much older air samples taken from pockets of air preserved in ancient Antarctic and Greenland ice cores, along with other environmental observations, the changes over the last 150 years or so are momentous. Atmospheric CO2 is now skyrocketing.
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