Antarctic Carbon Dioxide Reaches 400 PPM Mark For The First Time In 4 Million Years

Today, Antarctica is the same as it was nearly four million years ago when it comes to the carbon dioxide levels. That is, for the first time in the last four million years, carbon dioxide level has broken the 400 parts per million (PPM) barrier in the Antarctic.

The announcement about the carbon dioxide levels in the Antarctic was recently made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In fact, Antarctic lags a little in surpassing the limit as NOAA had previously estimated this to happen around May 23, 2016.

While the 400 ppm barrier does not hold any true statistical significance, the fact that the 400 limit has been reached for the first time in the history in the last 4 million years is enough to warrant the need to control the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.

According to lead scientist of NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, Pieter Tans, the southern hemisphere was the only place on Earth that had not reached the 400 ppm mark until now. The researcher is firm the global atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide will never go down below 400 ppm now, ever again in the remaining future of humanity.

In the paper, the researchers also described the record-breaking global mean carbon dioxide concentration, an event that took place in 2015. The researchers have predicted that there would be no monthly goal mean drop below the 400 ppm mark in 2016.

Carbon dioxide emissions are primarily absorbed by the plants, but the absorption rate varies throughout the year as the plants tend to absorb more of this greenhouse gas during the growing season. In any case, the number of plants around the world are not enough to absorb all the carbon dioxide emission.

The complete details of the study have been published in the journal Nature.