Highest Carbon Concentration Recorded in the Atmosphere Since Monitoring Began

"No Impact from COVID-19 Industry Shutdown"

Photo by Bloomberg News

[Asia Economy Reporter Yujin Cho] Last month, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surpassed the highest level ever recorded since observations began.

According to foreign media including Bloomberg on the 7th (local time), the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego announced that the atmospheric carbon concentration measured last month at the Mauna Loa atmospheric observatory in Hawaii reached 419.13 ppm.

This is an increase of 1.82 ppm compared to the same month last year, marking the highest level in 63 years since precise measurements began. It also represents about a 50% increase compared to the pre-industrial stable level of 280 ppm.

Although the increase in May compared to the same period last year slightly decreased, the average increase from January to May was 2.3 ppm, close to the 2.4 ppm increase during the same period from 2010 to 2019.

The research team analyzed that the slowdown in industrial production and reduced mobility due to the COVID-19 pandemic did not affect the trend of increasing carbon concentration.

The Mauna Loa atmospheric observatory, which has been operating since 1958, is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean far from sources of air pollution, and the carbon concentration measured there has exceeded 400 ppm since May 2013.

Carbon emitted from fossil fuel use accounts for the largest portion of greenhouse gases, and once emitted, it remains in the atmosphere for 1,000 years, trapping heat that would otherwise escape into space, causing global warming and various climate changes.

Ralph Keeling, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, said, "The decisive way to control the annually increasing atmospheric carbon concentration is to reduce fossil fuel emissions," adding, "For this, a stronger and longer shutdown than the COVID-19 shutdown last year will be necessary."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.