Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory just captured ominous signals about the planet’s health

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1. Hawaii’s Mauna Loa’s Observatory just captured an ominous sign about the pace of global warming.

   Atmospheric levels of planet-warming carbon dioxide aren’t just on their way to yet another record high this year — they’re rising faster than ever, according to the latest in a 66-year-long series of observations.

   Carbon dioxide levels were 4.7 parts per million higher in March than they were a year earlier, the largest annual leap ever measured at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration laboratory atop a volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island. And from January through April, CO2 concentrations increased faster than they have in the first four months of any other year. [Data](http://curve.data/) from Mauna Loa is used to create the Keeling Curve, a chart that daily plots global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, tracked by Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego.

   For decades, CO2 concentrations at Mauna Loa in the month of May have broken previous records. But the recent acceleration in atmospheric CO2, surpassing a record-setting increase observed in 2016, is perhaps a more ominous signal of failing efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and the damage they cause to Earth’s climate.

   Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/05/10/carbon-dioxide-record-mauna-loa/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/05/10/carbon-dioxide-record-mauna-loa/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)