Carbon Dioxide level in the atmosphere is increasing alarmingly as per the observation center at Mauna Loa, Hawaii.  It reached to 397.34 ppm in the month of March 2013 compared to 394.45 in March 2012.  

The measurement is taken from dry air after water vapor is removed.  Number of Carbon dioxide molecules present in the dry air is divided by the total molecules and the mole fraction is expressed as parts per million (ppm).

The observation center has been observing and recording the carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere at Mauna Loa sinc
e 1958.  From 1959 onwards, their observation shows a steady increase in the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere and the rate of increase also is increasing steadily.  

1959 shows an increase of 0.94 ppm and the increase rate crossed 1.02 ppm in 1965, it crossed 2.10 ppm in 1977 and it is 2.66 ppm increase in 2012.  

The observation center says that the increase in the carbon dioxide is a record high in one million years.  Interestingly the carbon dioxide emitted by the volcano is much less than that of the man made contributions the observation center observes.  And also it says that the increase of CO2 happened because of the increased usage of natural gases and as such the level of carbon dioxide occupancy is not going to come down in future.

(AW-SriJa}