The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: CO2 Level in Atmosphere Goes Above 430 PPM for First Time in Modern Age
Dear Diary. Only a few years ago I reported that CO2 concentrations measured from the research station at Mauna Loa Hawaii had breached the 420 ppm level:
Now I sadly have to report that the CO2 concentrations have reached 430 ppm.
https://www.co2.earth/daily-co2
| Mar. 7, 2025 | 430.60 ppm |
| Mar. 7, 2024 | 425.36 ppm |
| 1 Year Change | 5.24 ppm (1.23%) |
It didn’t shock me at all to see that concentrations of CO2 had moved above the 430 parts per million threshold on this Saturday. I still haven’t seen any real signs that the rate of rise has slipped significantly below approximately 2.5 ppm per year since the 1990s, unfortunately. In fact, that rate of rise appears to be above 2.5 ppm during this decade.
We have failed miserably to get the world to declare a climate emergency mainly due to efforts to confuse the climate issue from fossil fuel interests and pseudo scientists who are muddying the waters, claiming that there really is no climate crisis due to carbon pollution.
It seems just like yesterday that concentrations of CO2 slipped above 400 ppm, then 410 ppm. I wonder what Bill McKibben is doing now, shaking his head or banging it against a wall? After all, his organization is called 350.org, recommending that CO2 atmospheric concentrations fall back to 350 ppm. In order to do that we would need massive worldwide carbon capture efforts, which are probably beyond our energy and technological capabilities.
Every little tick going towards 450 ppm will mean that it will be that much harder to stabilize our climate. Here is a chart from Dr. Katherine Hayhoe using paleoclimatology showing what we are facing in association with sea level rise because of high levels of CO2:
We will continue to keep tabs on this important carbon measure as we move through the 2020s.
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is more new February 2025 and Winter 2024/25 climatology (summer for Southern Hemisphere):
Here is More Climate News from Saturday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)