...The extension of the Vostok CO2 record shows the present-day levels of CO2 are unprecedented during the past 420 kyr. Pre-industrial Holocene levels (~280 ppmv) are found during all interglacials, with the highest values (~300 ppmv) found approximately 323 kyr BP. When the Vostok ice core data were compared with other ice core data (Delmas et al. 1980; Neftel et al. 1982) for the past 30,000 - 40,000 years, good agreement was found between the records: all show low CO2 values [~200 parts per million by volume (ppmv)] during the Last Glacial Maximum and increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations associated with the glacial-Holocene transition. According to Barnola et al. (1991) and Petit et al. (1999) these measurements indicate that, at the beginning of the deglaciations, the CO2increase either was in phase or lagged by less than ~1000 years with respect to the Antarctic temperature, whereas it clearly lagged behind the temperature at the onset of the glaciations.
The ice schematic above is slightly over two and a quarter miles long/deep from Lake Vostok in Antarctica in 1998.
The Vostok ice core (click here) provides the longest continuous record of Antarctic climatic history. Analysis of the core has been completed to a depth of 3350 meters, representing approximately 440,000 years of climate history.
The current Global Levels of CO2 (carbon dioxide) are now 390.02 (click here)
