Carbon dioxide is seen as the key gas driving global warming so its level is monitored very closely. Samples of air are gathered all over the world and sent here to Boulder in Colorado to the US government's global monitoring project. Studies show that the level of carbon dioxide now stands at three hundred and eighty one parts per million. That's a record, according to the researchers. It's the result of one of the largest annual increases for the past fifty years and it confirms a trend - that the rate of increase has doubled in the last thirty years. We asked the British government's chief scientist for his reaction. Sir David King says the new figures are worrying.