In May 2013, the carbon dioxide monitoring station at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, recorded a major milestone — the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide had crossed the symbolic “red line” of 400 parts per million for the first time since record-keeping began. Now, three years and several record-breaking months later, the last station on Earth without a 400 ppm reading has finally reached it.
In a statement released Wednesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) revealed that, for the first time in 4 million years, carbon dioxide levels at the South Pole have passed the threshold of 400 ppm. The measurement, taken on May 23, shows that the world’s most remote continent has finally caught up with its populated counterparts, insofar as the effects of anthropogenic climate change are concerned.
Daily average carbon dioxide levels rose to a new high level of 400 parts per million on May 23 for the first time in 4 million years. This chart shows readings at the South Pole from 2014 to present, as recorded by NOAA’s greenhouse gas monitoring network.
“The far southern hemisphere was the last place on Earth where CO2 had not yet reached this mark,” Pieter Tans, the lead scientist of NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, said in the statement. “Global CO2 levels will not return to values below 400 ppm in our lifetimes, and almost certainly for much longer.”
Curated from Antarctica carbon dioxide levels breach red line
