“According to measurements taken last Thursday at a monitoring site in Hawaii, carbon dioxide levels have reached an all-time high of 400 parts per million,” the Associated Press reports. ” … The average CO2 level for the year is expected to be about 396 ppm, though the 400 ppm figure will become the norm “within a decade,” said James Butler, director of global monitoring at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth Science Research Lab. “The 400 is a reminder that our emissions are not only continuing, but they’re accelerating; that’s a scary thing,” Butler said. …The last time the worldwide carbon level probably hit 400 ppm was about 2 million years ago, said Pieter Tans of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. For reference, the first modern humans only appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago.”
17
May 2013
