How much CO2 is currently in the atmosphere?

The extent of CO2 in the atmosphere is measured in terms of PPM, which stands for Parts Per Million.

In 2023, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is estimated to be around 420 PPM. That is, for every millions parts (by volume) of the atmosphere, 420 parts are those of CO2. (In terms of total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, estimates suggest that there is about 3000 billion tons of CO2 in the atmosphere).

Now, how does the current concentration of 420 PPM (which is about 0.04% by volume) compare with the concentration before we started bellowing out huge amounts of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the past 50 years?

Let me go back a few thousand years and trace out how this concentration has trended since then!

• It was only 280 PPM during the 10,000 years up to the mid-18th century
• It reached about 320 PPM by 1960
• Reached about 340 PPM by 1980
• Hit the 370 PPM mark by 2000
• And reached almost 380 PPM by 2005
• This increased to just over the alarming 400 PPM mark in 2015.

The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years.

Jeeeeez!