WASHINGTON (AP) â The amount of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air jumped dramatically in 2012, making it very unlikely that global warming can be limited to another 2 degrees as many global leaders have hoped, new federal figures show. Scientists say the rise in CO2 reflects the world's economy revving up and burning more fossil fuels, especially in China. Carbon dioxide levels jumped by 2.67 parts per million since 2011 to total just under 395 parts per million, says Pieter Tans, who leads the greenhouse gas measurement team for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That's the second highest rise in carbon emissions since record-keeping began in 1959. The measurements are taken from air samples captured away from civilization near a volcano in Mauna Loa, Hawaii. More coal-burning power plants, especially in the developing world, are the main reason emissions keep going up â even as they have declined in the U.S. and other places, in part through conservation and cleaner energy. At the same time, plants and the world's oceans which normally absorb some carbon dioxide, last year took in less than they do on average, says John Reilly, co-director of Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change. Plant and ocean absorption of carbon varies naturally year to year. But, Tans tells The Associated Press the major factor is ever-rising fossil fuel burning: "It's just a testament to human influence being dominant." Only 1998 had a bigger annual increase in carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas from human activity. That year, 2.93 parts per million of CO2 was added. From 2000 to 2010, the world averaged a yearly rise of just under 2 parts per million. Levels rose by less than 1 part per million in the 1960s. In 2009, the world's nations agreed on a voluntary goal of limiting global warming to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit over pre-industrial temperature levels. Since the mid-1800s temperatures haven already risen about 1.5 degrees. Current pollution trends translate to another 2.5 to 4.5 degrees of warming within the next several decades, Reilly says. "The prospects of keeping climate change below that (2-degree goal) are fading away," Tans says. Scientists track carbon pollution both by monitoring what comes out of factories and what winds up in the atmosphere. Both are rising at rates faster than worst-case scenarios that climate scientists used in their most recent international projections, according to Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann. That means harmful effects of climate change will happen sooner, Mann says. http://news.yahoo.com/us-scientists-report-big-jump-heat-trapping-co2-183551516.html
Jaysus, futurecurrents, we've been through this a dozen times. CO2 has risen and fallen for many millenia before Man was ever around. Look at the long-term charts and please, try to stick to the evidence for once. AS LONG AT ATMOSPHERIC CO2 DOESN'T EXCEED 300 PPM THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT. Get it?
hey the recent data shows that we could be on the verge of a cooling period. Temperature has not measurably risen in 16 years and we about to see a fall off in solar heating... (according to our recent scientific findings) If CO2 actually causes warming... we might want to think about mandating V8s and coal fired energy production for a a few years.
Everywhere in March now it is colder than average. This global warming crap is quickly falling apart.
But global air temps HAVE gone up measurably over the last 4 years, 8 years, 12 years, 18 years, 19 years, 20 years, 25 years, 30 years, 50 years, 100 years, 200 years and 500 years. Isn't that funny? Can you understand why that may be? Huh? Any idea? If you can't understand it, which apparently you can't judging by the number of times you parrot it, I may be able to help you out. I think gwb and pisspoor may need help with the concept also, for some reason. Maybe because they also have the brain of a bird.
He could show us how we are due to be hit by a large extinction asteroid or how the Yellowstone caldera will soon explode again and wipe out mankind.