--- title: The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years | TIME description: The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged in 2016 to its highest level in 800,000 years, according to a report released Monday by the United Nation's World Meteorological Organization (WMO). canonical: https://time.com/video/aWuzDvo2/ og:title: The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years og:description: The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged in 2016 to its highest level in 800,000 years, according to a report released Monday by the United Nation's World Meteorological Organization (WMO). og:url: https://time.com/video/aWuzDvo2/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aWuzDvo2/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years twitter:description: The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged in 2016 to its highest level in 800,000 years, according to a report released Monday by the United Nation's World Meteorological Organization (WMO). twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aWuzDvo2/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years [Watch (HLS stream): The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aWuzDvo2.m3u8) (1:41)  _Published 2017-10-31. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged in 2016 to its highest level in 800,000 years, according to a report released Monday by the United Nation's World Meteorological Organization (WMO)._ --- Jul 27, 2023 10:53 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Scientists Accidentally Discover Method to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol](/video/WwXSIWkf/) ### Scientists Accidentally Discover Method to Turn Carbon Dioxide Into Ethanol [Carbon Dioxide Turned into Stone](/video/v34e9mEW/) ### Carbon Dioxide Turned into Stone [Know Right Now: China Released More Carbon Dioxide Than Acknowledged](/video/zsvRA005/) ### Know Right Now: China Released More Carbon Dioxide Than Acknowledged --- ## Transcript We have been breaking records in the concentrations of main greenhouse gases. And you have growth of carbon dioxide in one year has been also record breaking. We have never seen so big growth in one year as we have been seeing. Last year in carbon dioxide concentration. And this is demonstrating that we are not moving in the right direction at all. We are actually moving in the wrong direction if we think of implementation of the Paris Agreement. And this all demonstrates that there's an urgent need to [ INAUDIBLE ] decent level of climate mitigation, if you are serious with this 1. 5 to 2 degree target of Paris Agreement. Sometimes at the political level, they think that once they have signed the Paris Agreement, the problem is solved. But it's just the beginning of this process. And now the challenge is Is to convert our energy system, our transport system, and also our dietary system to favor carbon neutral or less carbon intensive base of behavior. And that hasn't happened fast enough to reach those targets at the moment. We have already started seeing growing amount of natural disasters related to weather. And folks have put economic losses related to these disasters. They have tripled since the 80s so that's a consequence of climate science but also the countries have become more climate sensitive. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Level of Carbon Dioxide in the Atmosphere Hasn't Been This High in 800,000 Years","description":"The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged in 2016 to its highest level in 800,000 years, according to a report released Monday by the United Nation's World Meteorological Organization (WMO).","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/aWuzDvo2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-10-31T13:48:55.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/aWuzDvo2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/aWuzDvo2/","duration":"PT1M41S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/aWuzDvo2/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```