"Researchers paint a grim picture of the future, as the Earth continues to warm at alarming rates." The concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hit an all-time record high in 2018, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) revealed Monday. In a statement, the WMO said that the "globally averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide reached 407.8 parts per million in 2018, up from 405.5 parts per million (ppm) in 2017," the highest concentration ever recorded. The increase in average concentration suggests that the Earth is warming at a rapid rate. "There is no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline, in greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere despite all the commitments under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in the Monday statement. "It is worth recalling that the last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of carbon dioxide was 3 to 5 million years ago. Back then, the temperature was two to