Carbon Dioxide Levels Are Highest in Human History

Scientists said the amount of carbon dioxide in the air broke a record in May. The preindustrial average was 50 percent higher than it is today.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is at an all time high.

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached its highest point of the year in May, as power plants, vehicles, farms and other sources continued to pump huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The highest level of emissions in history was achieved in 2011.

As the amount of carbon dioxide increases, the planet keeps warming, with effects like increased flooding, more extreme heat, and worsening wildfires that are already being experienced by millions of people around the world. The average global temperature is higher than in the past.

Carbon dioxide levels are growing more and more evidence that the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees is not being achieved. Scientists say the likelihood of catastrophic effects of climate change increases.

Rick Spinrad, the administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, said in a statement that they were a stark reminder that we needed to take urgent, serious steps to become a more climate- ready nation.

The long-term trend of carbon dioxide levels was not affected by the economic slowdown caused by the coronaviruses.

He said that the rate of increase in carbon dioxide concentration continued. The pace is the same as it was a decade ago.

As vegetation dies and decays in the fall and winter, the amount of carbon dioxide in the air increases. May is when the peak is reached. There is more land surface and vegetation in the North than in the southern hemisphere.

The peak concentration this year was calculated by Dr. Tans and others at the laboratory using data from a weather station in Hawaii. The long-term record of observations began there in the late 1950s and is known as the "Keeling Curve".

The program run by Dr. Keeling's son allows scientists to make observations at the mountain. They used similar data to calculate the concentration.

The two figures are higher than last year. The average concentration in preindustrial days was around 280 parts per million. Humans have pumped over 1.5 trillion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

To reach the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius, emissions must reach "net zero" by 2050, meaning sharp cuts, with any remaining emissions balanced out by absorption of carbon dioxide by the oceans and vegetation The rate of increase in carbon dioxide levels would flatten out if the world reached that target.

The Keeling Curve would fall if emissions were completely eliminated. He said that the atmospheric concentration would decline for hundreds of years.

He said that at some point an equilibrium would be reached but carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere and oceans would be higher than before.

As polar ice melt and other changes occur, sea levels could rise significantly.

The long tail is worrying to Dr. Tans. That could change the climate.