The rate at which the concentration of CO ₂ in the atmosphere – mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels – has tripled in five decades, an international report said on Wednesday. In 2022, there was an average of 417 parts per million (ppm) of the planet-warming gas in the air, up 2.2 ppm from the year before, according to the annual State of the Climate report led by scientists at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's 50 percent higher than pre-industrial levels and "the highest in modern atmospheric records and paleoclimate records that go back 800,000 years," the report says. It found that the annual growth in average global carbon dioxide over the past decade has tripled since the 1960s. Throughout 2022, "the climate continued to respond to the ongoing increase greenhouse gases and subsequent warming,” he added. (Marlowa HOOD)