Carbon dioxide levels

Subject: Environment

Section :Climate Change

Context:

Carbon level in atmosphere hits new milestone, 50 percent higher than pre-industrial levels.

Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere:

Carbon dioxide measured at the Mauna Loa Atmospheric Baseline Observatory, Hawaii, run by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), peaked for 2022 at 421 parts per million in May.
This has pushed the atmosphere further into territory not seen for millions of years.
NOAA’s measurements averaged 420.99 parts per million (ppm), an increase of 1.8 ppm over 2021. Scientists at Scripps independently calculated a monthly average of 420.78 ppm.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels were consistently around 280 ppm for almost 6,000 years of human civilisation. Since then, humans have generated an estimated 1.5 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution, much of which will continue to warm the atmosphere for thousands of years.
Compared to the 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution, the currently 420 ppm is 50% higher than those levels.
The reason it was much warmer and seas were higher millions of years ago at the same carbon dioxide level as now is that in the past the natural increase in carbon dioxide levels was far more gradual.

IPCC reports on Carbon emissions:

The Assessment report 6 if IPCC showed that the world can emit only about 500 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO2) starting January 1, 2020 for a 50 percent chance of limiting warming to 1.5°C. For a 67 percent chance of avoiding 1.5°C, the budget will come down to 400 GtCO2.
For a 50 percent chance of limiting temperatures to 2°C, the world can emit 1,350 GtCO2; and 1,150 GtCO2 for a 67 per cent chance.
Current trends also point to wealthy countries like the United States, the European Union and China eating into a disproportionate share of the budget while developing countries are left with negligible ‘carbon space’ to improve their standards of living.
Economic growth is still inextricably linked to a rise in energy demand, which leads to higher emissions despite dubious claims of ‘green growth’ and decoupling of gross domestic product and energy use / emissions.