Straight from the horse’s mouth, and it’s now official. At 404.16 ppm, February 2016 produced the highest monthly average CO2 level since Keeling records began back in 1958, and at 3.85 ppm the gap between the February 2016 level and the February 2015 level was also the highest on record.
Just to rub salt in to the poor old planet’s wounds, on 8 February the daily average CO2 level was 406.27 ppm which was the highest one-day level ever recorded up to that date, and just to keep these records rolling along nicely, on 2 March 2016, a new daily average record was set at 406.46 ppm, which includes the 18 march reaching a new record at 407.12 ppm.
(Image: CO2.Earth)
If you still have the stomach for a few more records, let’s have a look at the global temperature increases from the year 1880, which is the year when global temperatures were first recorded and analysed. For the next 96 years from 1880, with a few ups and downs (more downs than ups), by 1976 the annual global average temperature was in fact 0.01°C cooler than in 1880. But then came 1977 and things changed. From that year on we had no more downs, only ups, and year by year Planet Earth got just that little bit warmer. Records were now falling thick and fast, and at 0.74°C, 2014 set a new record, quickly followed by 2015 with average global temperatures for that year now at 0.81°C above the 1880 figure.