Recorded atmospheric CO2 hits new record

It may sound like a small number, 421 parts per million is a huge number when you’re talking about carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And it’s now the highest recorded global CO2 level, reached in May of this year.

Andrew Freedman wrote about this for the Axios Generate newsletter. He said what’s more concerning than the record itself, is the pace at which CO2 is increasing.

“If you look through Earth’s geological history, coming out of the Ice Age we really only raised CO2 by about 80 ppm over 6,000 years,” he told Climate Cast host Paul Huttner. “But we’re going up by about two to four ppm every year. The head official for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who tracks this says this is an explosion of CO2 when you look at this from an historical perspective.”

To hear more from Freedman, click play on the audio player above or subscribe to the Climate Cast podcast.