Why the modern CO₂ spike looks scarier than it is
Modern CO₂ levels often appear dramatic when recent instrumental measurements are directly compared with long-term ice core records. However, paleo-CO₂ proxies smooth atmospheric signals over centuries, which dampens rapid changes. When modern CO₂ data are smoothed to match proxy resolution, today’s levels still exceed past interglacial peaks but appear far less extreme than the raw measurements suggest.