Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have reached a three-million-year high, at 417.1 parts per million (ppm), despite the 17% drop in daily emissions brought about by the coronavirus lockdown, according to annual measurements at the atmospheric research lab at Mauna Loa, Hawaii.
The new figures, published last Thursday by the U.S. National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), capture the annual peak in CO2 levels at the end of May, and reflect a 2.4 ppm increase over 2019. This year’s reading is once again the highest since atmospheric measurements began in 1958, the highest in human history, and likely the highest in three million years, according to the Washington Post.