Where exactly did you get the graph?
my apologies, my computer skills are very minimal and I don't know whether it is authorised to link but here is the (unabridged) page from:
"Climate Change: Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
Author:
Rebecca Lindsey
September 19, 2019
The global average atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2018 was 407.4 parts per million (
ppm for short), with a range of uncertainty of plus or minus 0.1 ppm. Carbon dioxide levels today are higher than at any point in at least the past 800,000 years.
<p><img data-fr-image-pasted="true" alt="graph of carbon dioxide over the past 800,000 years, showing glacials and interglacials and how the 2018 CO2 level compares" title="Carbon dioxide over the past 800,000 years" data-delta="18" data-fr-src="
https://www.climate.gov/sites/default/files/paleo_CO2_2018_620.gif" width="620" height="266"><br></p>
Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in parts per million (ppm) for the past 800,000 years, based on EPICA (ice core) data. The peaks and valleys in carbon dioxide levels track the coming and going of ice ages (low carbon dioxide) and warmer interglacials (higher levels). Throughout these cycles, atmospheric carbon dioxide was never higher than 300 ppm; in 2018, it reached 407.4 ppm (black dot). NOAA Climate.gov, based on EPICA Dome C
data (Lüthi, D., et al., 2008) provided by NOAA NCEI Paleoclimatology Program.
In fact, the last time the atmospheric CO2 amounts were this high was more than 3 million years ago, when temperature was 2°–3°C (3.6°–5.4°F) higher than during the pre-industrial era, and sea level was 15–25 meters (50–80 feet) higher than today.
Carbon dioxide concentrations are rising mostly because of the fossil fuels that people are burning for energy. Fossil fuels like coal and oil contain carbon that plants pulled out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis over the span of many millions of years; we are returning that carbon to the atmosphere in just a few hundred years.
Squeeze or stretch the graph in either direction by holding the Shift key while you click and drag. The bright red line (
source data) shows monthly average carbon dioxide at NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory on Hawai'i in parts per million (ppm): the number of carbon dioxide molecules per million molecules of dry air. Over the course of the year, values are higher in Northern Hemisphere winter and lower in summer. The dark red line shows the annual trend, calculated as a 12-month rolling average.
According to the
State of the Climate in 2018 report from NOAA and the American Meteorological Society, global atmospheric carbon dioxide was 407.4 ± 0.1 ppm in 2018, a new record high. That is an increase of 2.5 ± 0.1 ppm from 2017, similar to the increase of 2.2 ± 0.1 ppm between 2016 and 2017.
In the 1960s, the global growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide was roughly 0.6 ± 0.1 ppm per year. Over the past decade, however, the growth rate has been closer to 2.3 ppm per year. The annual rate of increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past 60 years is about 100 times faster than previous natural increases, such as those that occurred at the end of the last ice age 11,000-17,000 years ago.
Why carbon dioxide matters
Carbon dioxide is a
greenhouse gas: a gas that absorbs heat. Warmed by sunlight, Earth’s land and ocean surfaces continuously radiate thermal infrared energy (heat). Unlike oxygen or nitrogen (which make up most of our atmosphere), greenhouse gases absorb that heat and release it gradually over time, like bricks in a fireplace after the fire goes out. Without this natural
greenhouse effect, Earth’s average annual temperature would be below freezing instead of close to 60°F. But increases in greenhouse gases have tipped the Earth's energy budget out of balance, trapping additional heat and raising Earth's average temperature.
Carbon dioxide is the most important of Earth’s
long-lived greenhouse gases. It absorbs less heat per molecule than the greenhouse gases methane or nitrous oxide, but it’s more abundant and it stays in the atmosphere much longer. And while carbon dioxide is less abundant and less powerful than water vapor on a molecule per molecule basis, it absorbs wavelengths of thermal energy that water vapor does not, which means it adds to the greenhouse effect in a unique way. Increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide are responsible for about two-thirds of the total energy imbalance that is causing Earth's temperature to rise.
<p><img data-fr-image-pasted="true" alt="stacked area graph showing the relative contribution of all the gases that cause global warming" title="Greenhouse gases relative 1990 amounts" data-delta="19" data-fr-src="
https://www.climate.gov/sites/default/files/aggi_stackedarea_1979-2018_620.jpg" width="620" height="340"><br></p>
(
left vertical axis) The heating imbalance in watts per square meter relative to the year 1750 caused by all major human-produced greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons 11 and 12, and a group of 15 other minor contributors. Today's atmosphere absorbs about 3 extra watts of incoming solar energy over each square meter of Earth's surface. According to NOAA's Annual Greenhouse Gas Index (
right axis) the combined heating influence of all major greenhouse gases has increased by 43% relative to 1990. NOAA Climate.gov graph, based on
data from NOAA ESRL.
Another reason carbon dioxide is important in the Earth system is that it dissolves into the ocean like the fizz in a can of soda. It reacts with water molecules, producing carbonic acid and lowering the ocean's pH. Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the pH of the ocean's surface waters has dropped from 8.21 to 8.10. This drop in pH is called
ocean acidification.
A drop of 0.1 may not seem like a lot, but the pH scale is logarithmic; a 1-unit drop in pH means a tenfold increase in acidity. A change of 0.1 means a roughly 30% increase in acidity. Increasing acidity interferes with the ability of marine life to extract calcium from the water to build their shells and skeletons.
<p><img data-fr-image-pasted="true" data-delta="11" data-fr-src="
https://www.climate.gov/sites/default/files/pteropod_comparison_620.jpg" width="620" height="337" alt="" title=""><br></p>
(
left) A healthy ocean snail has a transparent shell with smoothly contoured ridges. (
right) A shell exposed to more acidic, corrosive waters is cloudy, ragged, and pockmarked with ‘kinks’ and weak spots.
Photoscourtesy Nina Bednarsek, NOAA PMEL.
Past and future carbon dioxide
Natural increases in carbon dioxide concentrations have periodically warmed Earth’s temperature during ice age cycles over the past million years or more. The warm episodes (interglacials) began with a small increase in sunlight due to a tiny wobble in Earth’s axis of rotation or in the path of its orbit around the Sun.
That little bit of extra sunlight caused a little bit of warming. As the oceans warmed, they outgassed carbon dioxide—like a can of soda going flat in the heat of a summer day. The extra carbon dioxide in the atmosphere amplified the initial warming.
Based on air bubbles trapped in mile-thick
ice cores (and other paleoclimate evidence), we know that during the ice age cycles of the past million years or so, carbon dioxide never exceeded 300 ppm. Before the Industrial Revolution started in the mid-1700s, the global average amount of carbon dioxide was about 280 ppm.
By the time continuous observations began at Mauna Loa Volcanic Observatory in 1958, global atmospheric carbon dioxide was already 315 ppm. On May 9, 2013, the daily average carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa surpassed 400 ppm for the first time on record. Less than two years later, in 2015, the global amount went over 400 ppm for the first time. If global energy demand continues to grow and to be met mostly with fossil fuels, atmospheric carbon dioxide will likely exceed 900 ppm by the end of this century.
"
I am willing to consider that the Sun is a powerful force and has an influence on the Earth, especially if the magnetic shield that has protected her up till now is no longer adequate, but I will not in that case relinquish my belief that the heedless disregard we humans show to the consequences of our actions, such as: almost exclusive reliance on oil, coal & gas for power, the disastrous addition of lead to petrol, the reckless proliferation of plastics and installation of nuclear power as an 'alternative'. All these procedures carry drawbacks that should have prevented their ever taking place, but since they were, we now need to deal with that.
I think we
know this: (taken from a Hopi proverb) You cannot pump what belongs underground all over the surface, saturate the air and unbalance the chemistry, without there being consequences.
No wonder the young are pissed off with us -it looks like the plan is to leave it to them to deal with.
To say that in the far distant past there was also/more of this much CO2, so that it's 'ok' now, is to neglect the point that complex, vulnerable primates were not necessarily around (500+million ya) especially in our numbers, to make records of whether they could tolerate it. This is what concerns people. Trees and insects, even dinosaurs may have thrived (nice wee 'the greenies should like that' comment) but not us. Your denial of this man-made factor and the presentation of a cause (it's the sun) that we can do nothing about, will lead to apathy and despair.
(Good one!?:()
You know, an important point to remember while we are seeking for truths is that in this complex and crowded world, we are bound to meet those with whom we do not agree. But this should not mean we treat them with hostility or just reject their ideas. They may have a point. It is comfortable to mix with only those who think as we do, but we don't grow unless we learn to listen and allow others to think differently.