Carbon dioxide levels are now comparable to 4 million years ago

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere in May 2022 were 50 percent higher than during the pre-industrial era.

• It has reached levels not seen on Earth for about 4 million years.

Key results

• Global warming caused by humans, particularly through the production of electricity using fossil fuels, transport, the production of cement, or even deforestation, is responsible for the new high.

• May 2022 is usually the month with the highest carbon dioxide levels each year.

• In May 2022, the threshold of 420 parts per million (ppm) was crossed.

• The level now is comparable to what it was between 4.1 and 4.5 million years ago, when CO2 levels were near or above 400 ppm.

Keeling Curve measurement

• The measurements are taken at the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii, ideally located high on a volcano .

• It allows it to escape the possible influence of local pollution. At that time, sea levels were between 5 and 25 meters higher than now, high enough to submerge many of today’s major cities.

• Observations began at Mauna Loa in the late 1950s by a Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientist, Charles David Keeling, and the long-term record is known as the Keeling Curve.

• The Keeling Curve is a graph that represents the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in Earth’s atmosphere since 1958.

• The Keeling Curve is named after its creator, Dr. Charles David Keeling. Rising gradually to more than 4 km (13,100 ft) above sea level.

Mauna Loa

• Mauna Loa is the largest active volcano on our planet.

• The enormous volcano covers half of the Island of Hawai‘i and by itself amounts to about 85 percent of the area of all the other Hawaiian Islands combined.

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