CO2 RISING

Looks like we're going to get to find out what the worst consequences of global climate change really will be. The best consequences? Development of wind and sun power.

Study: Worldwide carbon emissions soar
Dan Vergano, May 21, 2007 (USA Today)

WHO
Christopher Field, Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology
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WHAT
Field’s study reports that world greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 2000 & 2004 grew at more than 3 times the rate they grew in the 1990s.

WHEN
The study, scheduled for publication in the next issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, studied world GHG emissions from 1980 to 2004.

WHERE
The most rapidly gorwing contributor to GHG emissions is China.

WHY
Economic growth burns energy. As long as the energy comes from carbon-based fuels (especially dirty coal), it generates GHGs.
A February report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the world’s temperature could rise 7.2 degrees and cause severe drought, floods and heat waves if GHG emissions were not curbed. Field’s reports finds emissions rising FASTER than IPCC projections, suggesting their predictions were not dire enough.
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QUOTES
Field: "Basically what happened is we have had rapid economic growth worldwide powered on traditional carbon-emitting sources…The world's economies are using more energy, and no region is decarbonising its energy supply…"
Angela Anderson, National Environmental Trust: "The report is saying that if you wonder what side of global warming's effects — droughts, warming and others — we are going to get — a little or a lot — we are going to get a lot…"
Robert Andres, Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Oak Ridge (Tenn.) National Laboratory: "This should serve as a notice to the global community that renewed and stronger efforts are necessary…"