CO2 warming jumps by 50% in 25 years

USA: Human activity is said to have increased the direct warming effect of CO2 in the atmosphere by 50% above pre-industrial levels during the past 25 years, according to a new report.

The US Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), records that last year, the global average carbon dioxide concentration reached 399ppm, increasing by a record amount of almost 3ppm. From the end of the Ice Age to the beginning of the industrial era, atmospheric carbon dioxide remained remarkably stable at 278 ppm.

The organisation’s recently published 10th Annual Greenhouse Gas Index, reports that overall, emissions of all heat-trapping greenhouse gases have amplified the warming impact on the planet by more than one third since 1990.