Capitalist Magazine September 28

‘This correlation between increases in CO2 emissions and American population growth suggests that emissions are good, because life flourishes where industrial gases are emitted.’ Read more here

Meanwhile if you don’t agree … The latest on global warming collected together by Jon Sumby …
Anthropogenic CO2 emissions have been growing about four times faster since 2000 than during the previous decade, and despite efforts to curb emissions in a number of countries which are signatories of the Kyoto Protocol. Emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel and land use change reached the mark of 10 billion tones of carbon in 2007. Natural CO2 sinks are growing, but more slowly than atmospheric CO2, which has been growing at 2 ppm per year since 2000. This is 33% faster than during the previous 20 years. All of these changes characterize a carbon cycle that is generating stronger climate forcing and sooner than expected.

From: Global Carbon Project: http://www.globalcarbonproject.org/

Carbon emissions rising faster than expected, especially in Australia

A new report has revealed a dramatic rise in the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions since 2000. The report by the international Global Carbon Project (GCP) team shows a four-fold increase in the rate of emissions. Carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels and land use changes reached almost 10 billion tonnes in 2007. CSIRO scientist and GCP executive director Dr Pep Canadell says the trend is concerning in light of global efforts to curb emissions.

“Econom[ies] have grown substantially and at the same time we’ve been saying we’re doing all sorts of different things to address climate change and reduce emissions,” he said. “So it comes a little as a shock when you look at the measurements and compare what happened in 1990 and what has been happening in 2000 is so strikingly different.”

The report found Australia’s fossil fuel emissions have grown by 2 per cent each year since 2000. Dr Canadell says despite a small dip in 2007, Australia’s emissions are still rising. “The old data is preliminary, we’re just trying to get it as soon as possible out so people understand what is happening,” he said. “We just picked up a small decline in Australia for 2007 but that is part of a really strong increase trend of 2 per cent.”

GCP co-chair and CSIRO scientist Dr Michael Raupach says Australia is unique among developed countries because its emissions are rapidly growing. “For Australia to achieve a 2020 fossil fuel emissions target 10 per cent lower than 2000 levels – the target referred to by Professor Garnaut this month – we would require a reduction in emissions from where they are now by 1.5 per cent per year,” he said. “Every year of continuing growth makes the future reduction requirement even steeper.” The report will be released by the Global Carbon Project in Washington and Paris today.

From: ABC Online: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/26/2374776.htm

China tops world’s biggest carbon polluter list

China has leapfrogged the United States as the world’s biggest carbon emitter and India is heading for third place, scientists said, in a report that warned global greenhouse gas levels were scaling record peaks.

The report, by a research consortium called the Global Carbon Project (GCP), confirms an estimate that China has become the biggest producer of carbon dioxide or CO2, the principal gas that causes global warming. Until 2005, rich countries emitted most of the world’s man-made CO2. Today, developing countries now account for 53 per cent of the total, the GCP said.

“The biggest increase in emissions has been taking place in developing countries, largely in China and India, while developed countries have been growing slowly,” it said. “The largest regional shift was that China passed the US in 2006 to become the latest CO2 emitter, and India will soon overtake Russia to become the third largest emitter.”

The GCP said CO2 emissions last year were the equivalent to almost 10 billion tonnes of carbon. Fossil fuels accounted for 8.5 billion tonnes and changes to land use, mainly through deforestation, accounted for the rest. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 surged 2.2 parts per million (ppm) in 2007 to reach 383 ppm. The rise was 1.8 ppm in 2006.

At 383 ppm, CO2 levels are 37 per cent above the benchmark of 1750, when the start of the Industrial Revolution unleashed voracious use of coal, oil and gas, it said. “The present concentration is the highest during the last 650,000 years and probably during the last 20 million years,” the report said. “All of these changes characterise a carbon cycle that is generating stronger climate forcing, and sooner than expected.”

The GCP report, Carbon Budget 2007, is authored by eight scientists in a project sponsored by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP), the International Human Dimensions Program on Global Environmental Research (IHDP) and the World Climate Research Program.It is based on UN data, statistical models and climate research published in major peer-reviewed journals and on energy data collected by the oil giant BP.

“Our numbers provide a reality check,” said Corinne Le Quere from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and the University of East Anglia in Eastern England. “The scale of efforts [to tackle emissions] is not enough.”

In 2007, China emitted 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon from fossil fuels, compared with 1.59 billion by the United States. Russia was third, with 432 million tonnes, followed by India, with 430 million.In November 2006, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that China would overtake the United States as the number one carbon polluter by 2010.

But in June 2007 the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency said China had already become the biggest emitter the previous year, thanks to soaring demand for coal and a surge in cement production. Analysts say the question of top polluter is politically charged. It touches on a nerve point at UN talks for a new global deal to address climate change. The United States has led the charge for China and India to sign up to tougher curbs on heat-trapping gases, arguing that a pact would be worthless without constraints by the big emitters of the future.

From: AFP via ABC Online: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/26/2375125.htm