The world reached a scary emissions milestone in March -- and it's only going to get worse

For the first time in recorded history, CO2 levels averaged above 400ppm for the entire month of March

Published May 6, 2015 5:23PM (EDT)

        (Antonov Roman/Shutterstock)
(Antonov Roman/Shutterstock)

The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) this March -- a barrier that, when it was first crossed in May 2013, marked a terrifying milestone.

Those records just keep coming: in 2014, CO2 concentrations surpassed that barrier a full two months earlier than they had the year before -- which is significant because the long-term rise in CO2 is subject to seasonal variability, and doesn't typically peak until May. This year, according to data released Wednesday by NOAA, not only did CO2 peak early (an occurrence that was no longer even newsworthy) -- the average for the entire month of March was above 400pm, for the first time in recorded history.


NOAA Earth Science Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division

The recent spike in CO2 levels correlates nicely (horrifyingly?) with the rise in global temperatures:


If we're going to talk about a "safe" limit to aim for, that's typically understood to be 350 ppm. We're headed in the opposite direction -- and it's going to take drastic changes for us to reverse course.  “Elimination of about 80 percent of fossil fuel emissions would essentially stop the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere," said James Butler, the director of NOAA’s Global Monitoring Division, in a statement. "But concentrations of carbon dioxide would not start decreasing until even further reductions are made, and then it would only do so slowly.”

By Lindsay Abrams

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