“The coronavirus-related economic downturn may have set off a sudden plunge in global greenhouse gas emissions, but another crucial metric for determining the severity of global warming — the amount of greenhouse gases actually in the air — just hit a record high.
“According to readings from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the amount of CO2 in the air in May 2020 hit an average of slightly greater than 417 parts per million (ppm). This is the highest monthly average value ever recorded, and is up from 414.7 ppm in May of last year.”

The highest monthly average in likely three million years.

We are the champions!

Champagnnnnnnne!

Here’s the pretty picture of this year’s record:

Not cool, people. Not cool.

And confusing to boot. You mean a 17% drop in CO2 emissions didn’t do diddly squat? What the flying frick is this sweet hell?

Well, even with a big coronavirus-led drop, humans doing human shit are still producing too much CO2 for the planet’s systems to deal with, so CO2 is still accumulating in the sky. Hanging out with the ozone, shooting the shit.

“The buildup of CO2 is a bit like trash in a landfill. As we keep emitting, it keeps piling up,” said Ralph Keeling, who directs Scripps’s carbon dioxide monitoring program, and whose late father, Charles David Keeling, began measurements at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii in 1958.”

So, what would we have to do to see a real downward blip in the graph?

“According to a Scripps news release announcing the findings, CO2 emissions reductions on the order of 20 to 30 percent would need to be sustained for six to 12 months in order for the increase in atmospheric CO2 to slow in a detectable way.”

Crikey!

[Cover image of CO2 by Jynto.]