The daily average carbon dioxide (CO₂) at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, was 430.60 parts per million (ppm) on March 7, 2025, the highest daily average on record. To find higher levels, one needs to go back millions of years.
Our civilization is going to completely COLLAPSE over the next 25 years.
We waited too long. The “Climate Crisis” is about to become the “Climate Apocalypse”.
How many millions of years has it been since CO2 levels were this high?
Estimated paleo-CO2 concentration (black line) with 95% credible (gray band). The colors show global mean surface temperature relative to the preindustrial period. During the Pleistocene epoch (~2.58 million to ~11,700 years ago), CO2 levels never reached anywhere near the present-day concentration of ~420ppm in 2022 (dashed horizontal line). From : The 2024 state of the climate report: Perilous times on planet Earth BioScience, biae087, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biae087
ABOUT 12 MILLION YEARS.
Source: “A 485-million-year history of Earth’s surface temperature”, E.J. Judd et al. Temperatures are averages for geological periods. Shaded area shows values with a 68% probability.
Look at the first graph, see the surge in CO2 levels about 16mya to around 480ppm(CO2). That period is known as the Miocene Climatic Optimum (18-16mya). In the second graph, which shows temperatures, that period is the YELLOW line. Temperatures during this period were +5°C to +6°C over the 1850 baseline. During this period the Earth looked something like this.
