Global CO2 levels reach record high

A new study released by Noaa, a US-based science company, shows that Earth has reached 400.83 parts per million (ppm) of CO2, a record high. There was also a record-breaking growth rate of 2.25 ppm from 2012 to 2014, reports The Guardian. Just to put that in perspective, the last time that CO2 levels were this high was over a million years ago, before modern humans had even evolved. World leaders will be meeting in Paris later this year to discuss the rising CO2 levels and will hopefully reach an agreement on scaling back our global carbon emissions. “The agreement and the decisions surrounding it needs to be a long term development plan providing the policies, pathways and finance for triggering a peaking of global emissions in 10 years’ time followed by a deep, decarbonisation of the global economy by the second half of the century,” said Nick Nuttall, a spokesman for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. According to the director of Noaa's global monitoring division, James Butler, fossil fuel emissions would have to be cut by 80% just to stop CO2 levels from rising any further. Unfortunately, this is a more drastic cut than most countries so far seem willing to make.