Phys.org:

"The annual growth rate of atmospheric carbon dioxide... jumped by 3.05 parts per million during 2015, the largest year-to-year increase in 56 years of research," said a NOAA statement.

Last year also marked the fourth consecutive year that CO2 grew more than two parts per million.

As of February, the average global atmospheric CO2 level was 402.59 parts per million. This is a significant rise over pre-industrial times. Prior to 1800, atmospheric CO2 averaged about 280 ppm.

"Carbon dioxide levels are increasing faster than they have in hundreds of thousands of years," said Pieter Tans, lead scientist of NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network.

"It's explosive compared to natural processes."

NOAA said the jump in CO2 is partially due to the weather phenomenon known as El Nino, which warms some parts of the world's oceans and causes unusual precipitation and drought patterns.

The rest of the growth is driven by continued high emissions from fossil fuel consumption, said NOAA.

The last time a similar jump in CO2 was observed was in 1998, also a strong El Nino year.

"The impact of El Nino on CO2 concentrations is a natural and relatively short-lived phenomenon," said a statement by World Meterological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.


This doesn't look very scary:



But this does:



We can still avoid that future if we act...

[edit:] Whoops - I see I should have put this in the Climate Change forum. Sorry.

Cheers,
Scott.