This figure shows the variations in concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere during the last 400 thousand years. Throughout most of the record, the largest changes can be related to glacial/interglacial cycles within the current ice age. Although the glacial cycles are most directly caused by changes in the Earth's orbit (i.e. Milankovitch cycles), these changes also influence the carbon cycle, which in turn feeds back into the glacial system.

Since the Industrial Revolution, circa 1900, the burning of fossil fuels has caused a dramatic increase of CO₂ in the atmosphere, reaching levels unprecedented in the last 400 thousand years. This increase has been implicated as a primary cause of global warming.

The spacing of carbon dioxide samples varies through time. At the present, the atmosphere is sampled routinely (at least daily) and complete annual averages are available. From the four ice cores presented on this plot the sampling varies from as rapid as one point every few years (recent parts of the Law Dome record) to as sparse as one sample every few thousand years (oldest parts of the Vostok record). In principle, the sparse sampling in the oldest parts of the record could hide abrupt excursions; however, isotopic measurements of ice cores (which are made continuously along the entire core) and our current understanding of the rates of natural processes for creating and removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere make it unlikely that any positive excursions in carbon dioxide comparable to the Industrial Revolution have happened during the interval presented above.

File:Carbon Dioxide 400kyr.svg is a vector version of this file. It should be used in place of this PNG file when not inferior. File:Carbon Dioxide 400kyr.png → File:Carbon Dioxide 400kyr.svg For more information, see Help:SVG. In other languages Alemannisch ∙ Bahasa Indonesia ∙ Bahasa Melayu ∙ British English ∙ català ∙ čeština ∙ dansk ∙ Deutsch ∙ eesti ∙ English ∙ español ∙ Esperanto ∙ euskara ∙ français ∙ Frysk ∙ galego ∙ hrvatski ∙ Ido ∙ italiano ∙ lietuvių ∙ magyar ∙ Nederlands ∙ norsk bokmål ∙ norsk nynorsk ∙ occitan ∙ Plattdüütsch ∙ polski ∙ português ∙ português do Brasil ∙ română ∙ Scots ∙ sicilianu ∙ slovenčina ∙ slovenščina ∙ suomi ∙ svenska ∙ Tiếng Việt ∙ Türkçe ∙ vèneto ∙ Ελληνικά ∙ беларуская (тарашкевіца) ∙ български ∙ македонски ∙ нохчийн ∙ русский ∙ српски / srpski ∙ татарча/tatarça ∙ українська ∙ ქართული ∙ հայերեն ∙ বাংলা ∙ தமிழ் ∙ മലയാളം ∙ ไทย ∙ 한국어 ∙ 日本語 ∙ 简体中文 ∙ 繁體中文 ∙ עברית ∙ العربية ∙ فارسی ∙

 

This figure was prepared by Robert A. Rohde from publicly available data and is incorporated into the Global Warming Art project.

Image from Global Warming Art

This image is an original work created for . Please refer to the image description page for more information.

Bu sənədi GNU Azad Sənədləşdirmə Lisenziyası, Versiya 1.2 və ya Azad Proqram Fondu tərəfindən nəşr olunan hər hansı sonrakı versiya şərtlərinə əsasən dəyişməz bölmələr, ön qapaq mətnləri və arxa qapaq mətnləri olmadan köçürmək, yayımlamaq və / və ya dəyişdirmək üçün icazə verilir; Lisenziyanın bir nüsxəsi GNU Azad Sənədləşdirmə Lisenziyası adlı hissəyə daxil edilmişdir.http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.htmlGFDLGNU Free Documentation Licensetruetrue

	Bu fayl Creative Commons lisenziyası altında yayımlanır.
	Siz heç bir məhdudiyyət olmadan: paylaşa bilərsiniz – əsəri köçürə, paylaya və ötürə bilərsiniz remiks edə bilərsiniz – əsəri adaptasiya edə bilərsiniz Aşağıdakı şərtlərə əməl etməklə: İstinad vermək – Müvafiq istinad verməli, lisenziyaya keçid əlavə etməli və dəyişikliklər edilib-edilmədiyini bildirməlisiniz . Siz bunu istənilən şəkildə edə bilərsiniz, lakin lisenziya verənin sizə şəxsən icazə verdiyini göstərən formada yox. bənzər paylaşma – Əsəri remix edirsinizsə, dəyişdirirsinizsə və ya üzərində iş aparırsınızsa, öz töhfələrinizi orijinalda olduğu kimi altında yayımlamalısınız.
	This licensing tag was added to this file as part of the GFDL licensing update.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/CC BY-SA 3.0Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0truetrue

1. (blue) Vostok ice core: Fischer, H., M. Wahlen, J. Smith, D. Mastroianni, and B. Deck (1999). "Ice core records of Atmospheric CO2 around the last three glacial terminations". Science 283: 1712-1714.
2. (green) EPICA ice core: Monnin, E., E.J. Steig, U. Siegenthaler, K. Kawamura, J. Schwander, B. Stauffer, T.F. Stocker, D.L. Morse, J.-M. Barnola, B. Bellier, D. Raynaud, and H. Fischer (2004). "Evidence for substantial accumulation rate variability in Antarctica during the Holocene, through synchronization of CO2 in the Taylor Dome, Dome C and DML ice cores". Earth and Planetary Science Letters 224: 45-54. doi:
3. (red) Law Dome ice core: D.M. Etheridge, L.P. Steele, R.L. Langenfelds, R.J. Francey, J.-M. Barnola and V.I. Morgan (1998) "Historical CO2 records from the Law Dome DE08, DE08-2, and DSS ice cores" in Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tenn., U.S.A.
4. (cyan) Siple Dome ice core: Neftel, A., H. Friedli, E. Moor, H. Lötscher, H. Oeschger, U. Siegenthaler, and B. Stauffer (1994) "Historical CO2 record from the Siple Station ice core" in Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tenn., U.S.A.
5. (black) Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii: Keeling, C.D. and T.P. Whorf (2004) "Atmospheric CO2 records from sites in the SIO air sampling network" in Trends: A Compendium of Data on Global Change. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy, Oak Ridge, Tenn., U.S.A.

• 
  Expanded record of CO₂ from the last 50 years at Mauna Loa
• 
  CO₂ at Mauna Loa since 1958. at the Wayback Machine at the Wayback Machine
• 
  Trends of major greenhouse gases.
• 
  and greenhouse gases during 420,000 years.
• 
  Recent global CO₂ emissions, .
• 
  Carbon dioxide variations during the last 550 million years.