Bloomberg News published a story on carbon dioxide levels last year, which reached a level unseen in the last 800,000 years due to the twin influences of El Niño and greenhouse gas emissions. While levels have decreased somewhat in recent months as the El Niño eased and moved to neutral and now weak La Niña-like conditions, it is now consistently above 400 ppm. The increase in CO2 causes some enhanced growth in certain plants but also allows heat to become trapped in the atmosphere, leading to the melting of glaciers and sea ice and warmer conditions in the atmosphere overall, which rev up the water cycle, leading to more droughts and floods. You can read the article at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-30/carbon-pollution-touched-800-000-year-record-in-2016-wmo-says.
Why is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere important? Dr. Marshall Shepherd of UGA posted an article in Forbes.com collecting a series of 14 tweets from a well-known astronomer which summarize why the amount of CO2 is changing the climate. You can read the article here.
