Pollution May Be Down, But Carbon Dioxide Is Soaring

It took no time for countries under quarantine to see energy use plummet, and with it, pollution levels. But even as citizens of Los Angeles and Jalandhar exuberantly posted photos of the Hollywood sign and the Himalayas visible without smog for the first time in decades, climate scientists warned the dramatic drop in emissions would do little if anything to slow the pace of global warming.

New measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide released today from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego confirm that prediction. As expected, CO₂ levels reached a new record in May: 417.2 parts per million gas molecules in the atmosphere, continuing a trend that’s gone unbroken for six decades. That’s 2.4 ppm above the reading for May 2019, which matches the average annual increase for 2010-2019. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered a similar 417.1 ppm.