Have we reached another climate tipping point?

Last month, the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere reached its highest level in the 63-year history of measurements by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

According to the report, in May, NOAA’s measurements at its Mauna Loa observatory averaged 419.13 parts per million (ppm).

That compares with the average in May 2020 which was 417ppm.

Measurements for the first five months of 2021 also showed a 2.3ppm increase over the same five months of 2020.

Pieter Tans, Senior Scientist at NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory, said: “We are adding roughly 40 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution to the atmosphere per year.

“That is a mountain of carbon that we dig up out of the Earth, burn, and release into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide year after year. If we want to avoid catastrophic climate change, the highest priority must be to reduce carbon dioxide pollution to zero at the earliest possible date.”