Losing the Climate Fight: Has 400 ppm Become Planet's New Normal?

Just two weeks into 2015, experts are expressing surprise and worry that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has already topped the 400 parts per million threshold several times—a troubling indication for the year ahead and an expression of humanity’s continued failure to act on climate change.

“The new year has only just begun, but we’ve already recorded our first days with average carbon dioxide levels above 400 parts per million, potentially leading to many months in a row above this threshold,” journalist Andrea Thompson wrote for Climate Central, an independent organization of scientists and reporters.

Thompson based her analysis on records from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, showing that Jan. 1 was the first day of the new year above the 400 ppm concentration, followed by Jan. 3 and Jan. 7. Daily averages have continued at this level or higher through Jan. 9, “though they could continue to dance up and down around that mark due to day-to-day variations caused by weather systems,” she wrote.

The world first hit the 400 ppm milestone in May, 2013.