Climate Change : Carbon Dioxide Levels Hit All-Time High—And Are Growing Rapidly

Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached an all-time record high last month, after growing at one of the fastest rates on record, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report published Monday—a dismal indication as scientists warn the devastating effects of climate change will continue to escalate and wreak havoc on the planet.

Carbon dioxide levels recorded at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory in Hawaii reached nearly 424 parts per million in May, up from 421 parts per million in May 2022—annual CO2 levels in the Northern Hemisphere peak in May.

The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide is the fourth-biggest yearly increase on record, according to scientists from NOAA and the University of California San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography—marking an unwanted increase as scientists aim to plateau CO2 levels.

Levels as high as 420 to 425 parts per million are more than 50% higher than the pre-industrial era, and continue to rise even as countries work to reduce fossil fuel emissions in hopes of meeting the goal laid out in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“Every year we see carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere increase as a direct result of human activity, NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement, adding: “Every year, we see the impacts of climate change in the heat waves, droughts, flooding, wildfires and storms happening all around us” and “we must expend every effort to slash carbon pollution and safeguard this planet and the life that calls it home.”

KEY BACKGROUND

Scientists have warned for decades fossil fuel emissions need to be limited to stave off deadly impacts of climate change. That’s because rising carbon dioxide levels—which come from burning fossil fuels primarily for transportation and electricity—trap heat in the atmosphere that would otherwise escape, an Earth-warming effect that prolongs droughts and heat waves and causes more intense wildfires and storms. United Nations scientists warned in March the world is “on thin ice” as the global temperature approaches the critical 1.5 degree Celsius estimated to be the maximum temperature increase to avoid more deadly and catastrophic droughts, heat waves, storms and sea-level rise. U.N. scientists had also warned in October greenhouse gas emissions will rise 10% above 2010 levels by 2030 when they desperately need to drop.

TANGENT

State and federal lawmakers have sought to impose stricter limits on emissions and earmarked billions of dollars for climate change mitigation in recent years, but many companies and GOP lawmakers have slammed those measures, arguing they hurt coal, natural gas and oil production. A group of Republican lawmakers last summer heavily criticized a $370 billion measure in the federal Inflation Reduction Act to tackle climate change, including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), who accused Democrats of “sacrificing American families at the altar of climate change.”