The horror! Atmospheric CO2 concentration at Syowa Station in Antarctica exceeds 400 ppm

From the RESEARCH ORGANIZATION OF INFORMATION AND SYSTEMS and “it’s just a number” department, comes this breathless press release.

Atmospheric CO2 concentration at Syowa Station in Antarctica exceeds 400 ppm

According to the 57th Japan Antarctic Research Expedition (JARE)/National Institute of Polar Research (NIPR), a daily mean atmospheric CO² concentration value of 400.06 ppm was observed at Syowa Station, Antarctica, on May 14, 2016.

This is the first time that the CO² concentration at Syowa Station has exceeded 400 ppm since NIPR and the Tohoku University in Japan initiated observations in 1984. In addition, the monthly mean CO² concentration value for June 2016 reached 400.51 ppm.

CO² is a greenhouse gas, and its atmospheric concentration is increasing owing to human activities since the Industrial Revolution. Global warming associated with the increase in atmospheric CO² and other greenhouse gases has become a serious problem worldwide.

“The fact that an atmospheric CO² concentration over 400 ppm was observed at Syowa implies that anthropogenic activities are definitely affecting the Antarctic region, even though Antarctica is far from the northern hemisphere where the population is concentrated,” said Daisuke Goto, an assistant professor at NIPR. CO² has exceeded 400 ppm at many locations on Earth; however, the Antarctic was the only region where CO² had not yet reached 400 ppm. “It is important to continue monitoring the atmospheric CO² concentration,” Goto emphasized.

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