At a US government agency lab in Hawaii, daily measurements of CO2 have risen to 400 parts per million for the first time in nearly 2 million years, and it does not seem to stop there.

According to The New York Times, scientists have feared this long awaited milestone for years, reaching a point that hasn’t been seen for more than 2 million years in history on earth. Although some scientists say that it has been nearly 10 million years since the earth’s atmosphere had reached a carbon dioxide level of this caliber, it is in agreement that it is happening much too fast.

The Earth system research laboratory which is a system on Mauna Loa, Hawaii, is a part of The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration. Pieter Tans who is the senior scientist of the NOAA is fearful of what this could do, and of the rapid pace it is happening in to say the least:

"Our measurements (NOAA) are in Coordinated Universal Time, while the Keeling measurements are in local Hawaii Time. If you shift the Keeling definition of a day to the same as ours then we do agree almost completely on the measurements.” In translation, Thursday’s number would be 400.08ppm.

During the Pleistocene Era, "It was much warmer than it is today," said Tans. "There were forests in Greenland. Sea level was higher, between 33 to 66 feet."

At one point it used to take up to 7,000 years to reach 80ppm caused by Carbon Dioxide. Ups and downs are normal in relevance to natural greenhouse gases Tans had stated. These gases come from decomposing plants, decomposing animals, and volcanoes. Although this makes sense,Tans had also pointed out that this is not at all what is actually effecting the high current levels . In fact the oceans are absorbing much of the gases, keeping them out of the air.

"What we see today is 100% due to human activity."

The amount of Carbon dioxide in the air is growing at a rate of 2ppm per year. According to Tans this is 100 times faster than at the end of the Ice Age.

BBC News spoke to Dr. James Butler who is the, Director of global monitoring at the NOAA, and he also fears at this rate, being under 400ppm will be no longer possible if we keep raising our greenhouse gasses so fast:

"Probably next year, or the year after that, the average yearly reading will pass 400pm.”

"A couple of years after that, the South Pole will have readings of 400ppm, and in eight to nine years we will probably have seen the last CO2 reading under 400ppm."

The severity in all of this rapid change according to Dr. Butler is that we are speeding up the process of nature’s natural cycle. With doing so, animals and plants are not able to keep up with this tempo. If it were in fact 100 ppm over millions or thousands of years they could very much so adapt to the changes according to USA Today.

"Carbon dioxide has some variability on an hourly, daily and weekly basis, so we are not comfortable calling a single number - the lowest we will go is on a daily average, which has happened in this case.

"Mauna Loa and the South Pole observatory are iconic sites as they have been taking CO2 measurements in real time since 1958. Last year, for the first time, all Arctic sites reached 400ppm.

The accounts in which the US are slowing emissions is down 5.9 billion tons per year, but china at No.1 in emissions spill out 10 billion tons per year, rising 10% annually.

"The 400 is a reminder that our emissions are not only continuing, but they're accelerating; that's a scary thing," Butler said Saturday. "We're stuck. We're going to keep going up."