UN carbon dioxide levels report show that the greenhouse gas is at an all time high, and dramatically rising at that. The new UN carbon dioxide level report  by the U.N.'s weather agency shows that CO2 levels in the atmosphere reached a record high in 2013 as man-made pollution continues to increase and transform the planet.

According to the Washington Post, the surge in the CO2 levels shocked even scientists and raised fears of more acceleration of the planet's warming in the coming decades.

Michael Oppenheimer, a Princeton University professor of geosciences who was not involved in the World Meteorological Organization's UN carbon dioxide levels report said that "It's the level that climate scientists have identified as the beginning of the danger zone."

Oppenheimer added, "It means we're probably getting to the point where we're looking at the 'safe zone' in the rearview mirror, even as we're stepping on the gas."

According to Dallas News, the UN carbon dioxide levels report by the WMO said that the heat-trapping gas, which holds the most share for contributing to global warming, rose to even higher global concentrations of 396 parts per million last year.

This is reportedly the biggest change in three decades as the increase of 2.9 parts per million from the previous year is 42 percent higher than before the Industrial Age with about 280 parts per million.

The rise in carbon dioxide levels comes from an ever-rising emission in automobiles and smokestacks, for the most part. However, according to the UN carbon dioxide levels report by the WMO released early Tuesday, the rise in CO2 is also because of the lessened ability of the world's oceans and plants in absorbing the excess carbon by humans.

The UN carbon dioxide levels report by the WMO on greenhouse gas levels was reportedly released before the climate summit of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York this year.

According to the Washington Post, President Obama will also be meeting with chief executives from a host of other countries on Sept. 23. They will be discussing ways on how to mitigate and lower industrial emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other gases responsible for heating up the planet.

Why is this important to know?

The latest figures from UN carbon dioxide levels report by the WMO are significant since they show not that not only the carbon emission of humans, but the complex communication between man-made gases and the natural world as well.

According to the Associated Press, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud also said pressingly, "We know without any doubt that our climate is changing and our weather is becoming more extreme due to human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels."

He added, "Time is not on our side, for sure."

Jarraud said, referring to the UN carbon dioxide levels report, with the current rate of the CO2 rise, pollution levels in the atmosphere is expected to cross the 400 ppm threshold by 2016, which is way beyond the 350 ppm some scientists and environmental groups would call a safe level. Also, the alarming rise hasn't been since 1987. This means the world's current CO2 levels at are at a record-breaking high, much like the drought in California.

Last month, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a draft report saying that it is looking more likely that the world will shoot past the record-high point and that by mid-century, the Earth's temperatures will increase by about another 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2 degrees Celsius.

By the century's end, temperatures will then be about 6.7 degrees warmer or 3.7 degrees Celsius, the draft report said, not unless humans do something about it.

History records show that about half of the pollution by human sources is absorbed by oceans and plants. The planet's natural resources prevent further temperature rise, scientists say.

Oksana Tarasova, a scientist and chief of the WMO's Global Atmospheric Watch program said, "If the oceans and the biosphere cannot absorb as much carbon, the effect on the atmosphere could be much worse."

The monitoring network collects data from 125 monitoring stations worldwide, collecting air samples near the poles, over the oceans, and in several locations far from cities and other major sources of pollution, according to the Washington Post. They are also considered as the most reliable window on the health of the Earth's atmosphere.

Tarasova said, "The changes we're seeing are really drastic. We are seeing the growth rate rising exponentially."

Though natural carbon dioxide is an essential greenhouse gas in sustaining life on Earth because it enables photosynthesis, excessive levels are dangerous. Excessive CO2, as shown in the UN carbon dioxide levels report, acts as a heat trap, causing the planet to warm.

Apparently, the rise has begun since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and that the increase has accelerated since the 1990s, according to scientists.

What is the effect on the planet?

The UN carbon dioxide levels report warns that if current trends continue and CO2 levels continue to rise at this rate, the world would soon see major disruptions to both natural ecosystems and human civilization. This would include rise in sea levels which could drown mire the world's coastal cities and half its population.

According to the Washington Post, unless aggressive action is taken to lower levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, as projected by the UN carbon dioxide levels report, temperatures will rise up to nine degrees in the next century.

The UN carbon dioxide levels report said that between 1990 and 2013, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions caused a 34 percent increase in the warming effect on the climate, reports Dallas News.

Scientists described the current CO2 levels as a level wherein more dramatic climactic impacts become likely, and the UN carbon dioxide levels report said in the next two years, the symbolically important threshold of 400 parts per million will be crossed.

The threshold is reportedly about 40 percent higher than in pre-industrial times and higher than in any other period in at least 800,000 years.

Methane, another greenhouse gas coming after carbon dioxide which has the biggest effect on climate, has also risen significantly, according to the UN carbon dioxide levels report. According to Dallas News, the climb has been steady in the last six years, with its levels reaching a new high of 1,824 parts per billion in 2013, a rise to 153 percent 700 parts per billion during the pre-industrial era.

The UN carbon dioxide levels report said that about 40 percent of the methane comes from natural sources such as termites and wetlands. However, most of it comes from human practice like farming and fossil-fuel extraction, cattle breeding, rice agriculture, fossil fuel burning, landfills and incineration.

For the first time, the annual report also included data on the increasing acidification of the oceans due to the levels of greenhouse gases.

According to the WMO, as the seas absorb more carbon dioxide from the air, the water's chemical composition becomes more acidic, and that the rate of acidification is "unprecedented, at least over the past 300,000 years."

Higher acidity has been known to alter the natural cycles of many marine species, which includes reef-building corals to shellfish, to their ability to use sea-borne calcium to build their shells.

UN carbon dioxide levels report also said that even if our carbon dioxide emissions would stop today, it would still take several decades before we could see a significant drop in concentrations. According to Dallas News, emissions mainly come from China and other large countries with expanding economies, and so far there still isn't a binding pact from the countries to curb the global emissions. Meanwhile, the goal of the U.N.'s climate talks is to come up with an agreement by next year.