Earth’s Carbon Concentrations Soar to Levels Not Seen in 800,000 Years

Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, August 4 2018 (via Truthout)

As temperatures bust heat records across the globe and wildfires rage from California to the Arctic, a new report produced annually by more than 500 scientists worldwide found that last year, the carbon dioxide concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere reached the highest levels “in the modern atmospheric measurement record and in ice core records dating back as far as 800,000 years.”

While the most significant jump was the global average for carbon dioxide (CO₂)—which, at 405.0 parts per million (ppm), saw a 2.2 ppm increase from the previous year—concentrations of other dominant planet-warming greenhouse gases, methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), also hit “record highs,” according to State of the Climate in 2017 released Wednesday.

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