Comment Re:What's the Cretaceous got to do with it? (Score 1) 279
Yes, NASA provides an informative graph displaying the atmospheric CO2 density. Besides the first graph on the page, "DIRECT MEASUREMENTS: 1958-PRESENT", displaying the current level and recent history, the second graph on the same page "PROXY (INDIRECT) MEASUREMENTS" provides a view with somewhat longer term historical context.
Interesting perspective on the political debate is that not only are the CO2 levels rising, but also the CO2 emissions continue to increase year by year nearly monotonically apart from a few recent dips, based on a chart from an IEA (International Energy Agency) 2022 report. Examples of deviations from the monotonic growth are seemingly related to temporary economic slowdown such as the 2009 subprime recession and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Disregarding possible related counteracting natural processes, the apparent implication is that not only the CO2 density is increasing but also the rate of increase thereof continues to accelerate in spite of current efforts to control climate change. (Consistently with the CO2 density but arguably a bit besides the point, also the global average surface temperatures as well as the global mean sea level show apparent recent superlinear increases.)
An online resource, the IEA data explorer, allows display of the greenhouse gas emissions both globally or split by country. Possibly interestingly the US emissions display a decreasing trend since apparent cumulative peak emissions in 2005 and some industrialized EU countries e.g. France and Germany a decreasing trend since 1979. The global emissions as well as those of PRC (China) and India show increasing trends. While the data does not preclude a hypothetical effect of climate action by nations, the shift in the global production of goods towards the south east Asia could be another plausible contributing factor to both the decreasing greenhouse gas emissions of the major 20th century industrialized nations as well as the effect having been negated or offset, depending on the perspective, by the even faster rate of increase of emissions in the "developing" countries.
TL;DR (disclaimer: IANACS / I am not a climate scientist): In spite of global climate action so far, the atmospheric CO2 density as well as significant climate related measurements appear to show a continuously accelerating rate of deterioration.
