The Washington Post Finds Recent Atmospheric CO2 Increases "Startling", Apparently . . .
Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are showing a startling increase
Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have spiked more in the period from February 2015 to February 2016 than in any other comparable period dating back to 1959, according to a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory.
The change in average concentrations from February of last year to February of this year was 3.76 parts per million at the storied Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, leaving the concentration at 404.02 parts per million for February, based on preliminary data.
Pieter Tans, lead scientist of NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, confirmed that the increase, reported previously by New Scientist, represented a record year-over-year growth for Mauna Loa. He also said that in addition to the stark rise in carbon dioxide levels over the past year, researchers have now observed four straight years of increases of more than 2 parts per million in the atmosphere. “We’ve never seen that,” Tans said. “That’s unprecedented.”
Indeed, the average annual increase during 2015, of 3.05 parts per million of carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa, was also the highest in the record, according to NOAA — exceeding the previous record of 2.93 parts per million in 1998, which was also a strong El Nino year. Pre-industrial levels of carbon dioxide were just 280 parts per million, rather than over 400 right now — and when the measurement record began at Mauna Loa in the late 1950s, were below 320 parts per million. So we have come a very long way, and very fast.
EDIT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/03/09/atmospheric-carbon-dioxide-levels-are-showing-a-startling-increase/
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