April was the most polluted month
in history, the Climate Central organisation said Wednesday.
"The end of April has arrived, and with it, the record for
the first month in human history with an average carbon dioxide
level in Earth's atmosphere above 400 parts per million has been
set," said climatecentral.org.
The last time atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were this
high consistently was anywhere from 800,000 to 15 million years
ago, various studies have estimated, and the world was a very
different places then, with much warmer temperatures and
extremely higher seas.
With a little more than 24 hours left in the month, the
average for April can't slip below 400 ppm, Climate Central
said.
"Every day in April has been over 400 ppm," said Pieter
Tans, a climate scientist with the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration.
The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are
monitored from a site atop Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano, where
they have been measured continuously since 1958.
The long record has charted the steep rise of the
greenhouse gas - the most prevalent in Earth's atmosphere - as a
result of human emissions.
The first measurement in excess of 400 ppm was made on May
9, 2013.
This year, the level rose above that mark a full two months
earlier, and has remained above 400 ppm steadily since the
beginning of April.
While the milestone is largely a symbolic one, it does
illustrate how far emissions have risen from their preindustrial
levels of 280 ppm.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
