ALBAWABA - The current levels of carbon dioxide emissions in the air have reached their highest point in over four million years due to the burning of oil, coal, and gas.
Levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air are now 50% higher than they were before the industrial era began, according to scientists from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached its highest level in human history, according to U.S. government data.
The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration announced that the carbon dioxide level measured in May in Hawaii averaged 424 parts per million.
That’s 3 parts per million more than last year’s May average and 51% higher than preindustrial levels of 280 parts per million.
Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature, and as the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle, atmospheric CO2 is the primary carbon source for life on Earth.
It is an important heat-trapping gas, or greenhouse gas, that comes from the extraction and burning of fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and natural gas), from wildfires, and from natural processes like volcanic eruptions.
