An unprecedented amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide was recorded yesterday from the Mauna Loa Observatory on the Big Island. The daily measurement came in at 400 ppm, an amount never before encountered by human civilization.

Mauna Loa Observatory’s CO2 monitoring station sets the global benchmark.

The AP reports:

Before the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels were around 280 ppm, and they were closer to 200 during the Ice Age, which is when sea levels shrank and polar places went from green to icy. There are natural ups and downs of this greenhouse gas, which comes from volcanoes and decomposing plants and animals. But that’s not what has driven current levels so high, Tans said. He said the amount should be even higher, but the world’s oceans are absorbing quite a bit, keeping it out of the air.

“What we see today is 100 percent due to human activity,” said Tans, a NOAA senior scientist. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the overwhelming bulk of the man-made increase in carbon in the air, scientists say.

You can check out the full story here.

(Photo credit: Mauna Loa Observatory by Flickr user leahleaf.)

— Alice Terry