Atmospheric CO2, Methane, Nitrous Oxide All Hit New Record Highs In 2012

[hatrack]

The amount of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere hit a new record high in 2012, continuing an ever-faster rise that is driving climate change, the UN weather agency said Wednesday.

"The concentrations are reaching once again record levels," Michel Jarraud, who heads the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), told reporters in Geneva.

His organisation released its annual report on greenhouse gases Wednesday, showing that concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide all broke fresh records in 2012. Global concentrations of CO2, the main culprit in global warming, for instance reached 393.1 parts per million last year, or 141 percent of pre-industrial levels -- defined as before 1750.

The report was released a day after the UN Environment Programme warned the chances of limiting the global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels were swiftly diminishing, and ahead of UN climate talks that open in Warsaw next week.

EDIT

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Greenhouse_gas_in_atmosphere_hits_new_record_UN_999.html

[NickB79]

1. "Continuing an ever-faster rise"

The atmospheric increase of CO2 from 2011 to 2012 was higher than the average growth rate over the past 10 years, WMO said, stressing that the global concentrations of CO2 last year were dangerously close to the symbolic 400 parts per million threshold.

So, despite an increasingly aggressive roll-out of renewables, global CO2 emissions are increasing FASTER than average?