2010 Had Biggest One Year Jump in Greenhouse Gas Emissions

If ever there was a plea to curb our dependence on fossil fuel, it's this one from Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org. Based on a New York Times article dated December 4, 2011, emissions rose just shy of 6% between 2009 and 2010. That's a HUGE increase for one year. (Keep in mind, there was a near 1.5% percent decrease in 2009 during the worst part of the recession.) The news prompted McKibben to quip in an article posted the following day on CommonDreams.org that "we've all but lost the battle to reduce the damage from global warming."

See an excerpt below from McKibben's article.

The Most Important News Story of the Day/Millennium
Published on Monday, December 5, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
by Bill McKibben

"The most important piece of news yesterday, this week, this month, and this year was a new set of statistics released yesterday by the Global Carbon Project. It showed that carbon emissions from our planet had increased 5.9 percent between 2009 and 2010. In fact, it was arguably among the most important pieces of data in the last, oh, three centuries, since according to The New York Times it represented 'almost certainly the largest absolute jump in any year since the Industrial Revolution.'

What it means, in climate terms, is that we’ve all but lost the battle to reduce the damage from global warming. The planet has already warmed about a degree Celsius; it’s clearly going to go well past two degrees. It means, in political terms, that the fossil fuel industry has delayed effective action for the 12 years since the Kyoto treaty was signed. It means, in diplomatic terms, that the endless talks underway in Durban should be more important than ever--they should be the focus of a planetary population desperate to figure out how it’s going to survive the century.

But instead, almost no one is paying attention to the proceedings, at least on this continent. One of our political parties has decided that global warming is a hoax--it’s two leading candidates are busily apologizing for anything they said in the past that might possibly have been construed as backing, you know, science..."

Click here to read more of the article.

Image courtesy of conserve-energy-future.com.

Comments

[Where is Philippines]

Government should take action to minimize it, or to implement the use of green energy to avoid this.

[Online Shopping]

If this thing is continue it can cause green house effect and sooner damaging the ozone layer, the uv ray protector.

[Where is singapore]

To all those industry owner, if really cannot stop the emission of gases on the air, why not think of a way to minimize it, like installing the filter to avoid the poisonous and too much emmission.

[Travel to UK]

If the ozone layer is damage, it cause major problems not only for the animals, trees and specially to the human.

[Healthy Options]

It is very bad, too much pollution and gas eimmsion in the environment can easily destroy the ozone layer.