HONOLULU — Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was recently measured at an alarming new level.
Scientists at the Mauna Loa Observatory recorded carbon dioxide levels at 415.27 parts per million on Sunday and 415.40 parts per million on Monday. The last time CO2 levels were this high was 3 - 5 million years ago.
This was the Pliocene Epoch. Humans didn't yet exist, sea levels were 16 - 131 feet higher than normal and the entire planet was hotter and wetter. A professor of earth system science told NBC News that forests grew as far north as the Arctic during the Pliocene.
NASA reported CO2 levels first reached 400 parts per million on May 9, 2013, the first time in human history that milestone was passed. NASA said that crossing this threshold is a sign that the planet is now in the Anthropocene, "a human epoch where people are having major and lasting impacts on the planet."
Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are responsible for climate change. These greenhouse gases cause climate change by trapping heat in the atmosphere and can contribute to respiratory disease from smog and air pollution.
Other effects of climate change include extreme weather, sea level rise, food supply disruptions and increased wildfires.
Hawaii News Now spoke with Ralph Keeling, the director of the carbon dioxide program at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Keeling said the new level is "linked to the ongoing use of fossil fuels and the effects of a mild El Niño.
Hawaii News Now said scientists at Mauna Loa have been recording carbon dioxide levels since 1958.
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