An astonishing new report indicates that something has happened in Antarctica that hasn’t happened in millions of years.

Carbon dioxide levels broke the 400 parts per million barrier for the first time in 4 million years, according to a NOAA statement.

NOAA just announced that the continent hit this milestone May 23, although the global annual mean concentration of carbon dioxide blew past 400 ppm as long ago as last year, the first time in the recorded history of humankind.

It’s a further sign that global warming is only continuing to get out of control, and that more must be done to halt the march of rising global temperatures.

The far southern hemisphere had done a good job up until this time, but even Antarctica hasn’t been able to stop the march of Global Warming.

“It was only a matter of time that we would average 400 parts per million globally,” said Pieter Tans, lead scientist of NOAA’s Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network. “We first reported 400 ppm when all of our Arctic sites reached that value in the spring of 2012. In 2013 the record at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory first crossed the 400 ppm threshold. Reaching 400 parts per million as a global average is a significant milestone.”