CO2 is still building upThe vast majority of the extra carbon dioxide and heat being added into the Earth’s biosphere ends up in the oceans, where heat has been building up since the early 1970s.What the ocean doesn’t take up, is left to accumulate in the atmosphere.There are two long-term records of the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, measures as parts of CO2 per million parts of the atmosphere (ppm).Instruments at Mauna Loa in Hawaii have been showing the accumulation of CO2 since the 1950s.Last year though saw the biggest jump ever since records started. CO2 is now above 400ppm there.Australia holds the other long-term record of CO2 in the atmosphere – taken at the aptly-named Cape Grim, in Tasmania.Here, the very latest readings for February 2016 show CO2 at 398.71ppm. At some point in the coming months, the Cape Grim data will also tip above 400 ppm.If you want records, then these readings in Hawaii and Tasmania have been breaking them pretty much year on year for decades.
The Spiral Turns 