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Carbon Fact Sheet
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in parts per million by volume
280 – Average level in the pre-industrial era
350 – new target cap level to stabilize at to avoid worst effects of climate change – James Hansen NASA climatologist “A cap of 350 ppm is needed if “humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed,” said James Hansen NASA climatologist in 2008 in a quote printed in the British broadsheet, The Guardian, April 7, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/07/climatechange.carbonemissions
387 – Current level and widely thought to be rising at a rate of around 2ppm per year
450 – Older target cap level, still thought acceptable by many. However, "If you leave us at 450ppm for long enough it will probably melt all the ice - that's a sea rise of 75 metres. What we have found is that the target we have all been aiming for is a disaster - a guaranteed disaster," Hansen told The Guardian.
550 - At levels as high as 550ppm, the world would warm by 6C, British broadsheet The Guardian reports. Previous estimates had suggested warming would be just 3C at that point. – Hansen
Emissions
27 billion tons of anthropogenic CO2 emitted per year as of 2007