State of Our Climate
​Atmospheric Greenhouse Gas Concentrations
Scripps daily CO2
CO2 equivalent
​Atmospheric GHG concentrations all together are expressed as CO2 equivalent. It tells us we are 'committed' (locked in) to a higher warming​ than at present. ​Radiative (hear) forcing is derived from CO2 eq.


Atmospheric CO2        April 2023 420 ppm
800,000-year 
​ice core limit​s
CO2: 300 ppm
methane: 800 ppb
nitrous oxide: 300 ppb​​
April 2023
CO2: 420.4 ppm
methane: 1,920 ppb
nitrous oxide: 336 ppb​​
Pre-industrial levels
CO2: 278 ppm
methane: 722 ppb
nitrous oxide: 270 ppb​
CO2 equivalant 
(all GHGs​)

May 2022
​​​​508 ppm (CO2 eq.) 
​​All three atmospheric GHGs are record high increasing at record rates, methane explosively
Past 800,000 yrs
Past 2,000 yrs
From 1800​
(seasonally adjusted mean)
Atmospheric methane.      April 2023   1920 ppb
Nitrous oxide                   March 2023   336 ppb
50% increase
266% increase
​Explosive increase since 2019
WMO annual GHG Bulletin

​From Scripps CO2: record for past week and up to 800,000 years ago
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Note the concentration here is for the day- not the adjusted CO2 mean that ​is used for climate assessment 
The (accelerating) concentration of all atmospheric greenhouse gases combined (CO2 equivalent) constitute a full long term ​equilibrium warming of over 2.5°C (Constant composition commitment)
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There will be additional warming from the many large planetary feedback sources​ (like wetlands and permafrost)
​There will be additional warming due to reduced efficiency of the land (forest) and ocean carbon sinks that have had the effect of buffering the warming by about 50%. 
Another source of extra warming results from fossil fuel air pollution cooling, a hidden source of warming on termination of fossil fuel energy​
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