In 2015 , the creation got together and bless theParis Agreement , pledging to obviate the bad essence ofhuman - caused mood changeby restrict warming to1.5 ° Cabove pre - industrial grade .
Four year on and the UN Secretary - General has warned we arenot on trackto do so , while the carbon - trailing sensing element reveal we conk out yet another track record over the weekend – on Saturday , the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) immortalize at theMauna Loa Observatory , Hawaii , reached 415.26 parts per million ( ppm ) . This is the first meter CO2levels have transgress 415 ppm in the entirety of human story .
" This is the first meter in human history our planet ’s atmosphere has had more than 415ppm CO2 , " meteorologist Eric Holthaustweeted .
" Not just in immortalize history , not just since the invention of agriculture 10,000 years ago . Since before modern world existed millions of year ago .
" We do n’t know a planet like this . "
Atmospheric CO2levels have climbed140 ppmsince the Industrial Revolution – in 1700 , they were at 275 ppm – and5 ppmin the preceding two twelvemonth alone , take layer high than they have been for800,000 years or more . At this rate , some predict we will hit1,000 ppmby the end of the one C .
For the phonograph recording , the last time levels were at 1,000 ppm , Antarctica had forests while annual temporary in Western Europe and New Zealand were10 to 15 ° cytosine higherthan they are today . This was 56 to 48 million years ago , during the early Paleogene period .
Fast fore 45 million years and the satellite was in the midst of the Pliocene epoch . Then , CO2levels are thought to have been between 310 to 400 ppm , CNNreports . Aka low-pitched than what we are currently go through . And yet , temperatures were some 2 to 3 ° C higher than they are today . Sea levels were 25 meter ( 82 feet ) higher .
If we continue to incinerate fossil fuel and expel greenhouse gases ( like CO2 ) into the standard atmosphere at current levels , expert warn we could make Earth uninhabitable . Weather will becomemore utmost , theoceans will roil , andbiodiversity will plummet .
Alandmark reportpublished last year come up that to avoid the most catastrophic results of climate change , we must set warm up to 1.5 ° C above pre - industrial levels .
The good intelligence isit ’s not too belated . But we have to act now .