Global Warming Spirals Upwards

the lndependent/UK

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=505798

Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have jumped
abruptly, raising fears that global warming may be
accelerating out of control.

Measurements by US government scientists show that
concentrations of the gas, the main cause of the climate
exchange, rose by a record amount over the past 12 months. It
is the third successive year in which they have increased
sharply, marking an unprecedented triennial surge.

Scientists are at a loss to explain why the rapid rise has
taken place, but fear that it could show the first signs that
global warming is feeding on itself, with rising temperatures
causing increases in carbon dioxide, which then go on to
drive the thermometer even higher. That would be a deeply
alarming development, suggesting that this self-reinforcing
heating could spiral upwards beyond the reach of any attempts
to combat it.

The development comes as official figures show that Britain’s
emissions of the gas soared by three per cent last year,
twice as fast as the year before. The increase - caused by
rising energy use and by burning less gas and more coal in
power stations - jeopardizes the Government’s target of
reducing emissions by 19 per cent by 2010.

It also coincides with a new bid to break the log jam over
the Kyoto treaty headed by Stephen Byers, the former
transport secretary, who remains close to Tony Blair.

Mr Byers is co-chairing with US Republican Senator Olympia
Snowe a new taskforce, run by the Institute of Public Policy
Research and US and Australian think tanks, which is charged
with devising proposals that could resolve the stalemate
caused by President Bush’s hostility to the treaty.

The carbon dioxide measurements have been taken from the
11,400ft summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, whose enormous dome
makes it the most substantial mountain on earth, by
scientists working for the US government’s National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration.

They have been taking the readings from the peak -
effectively breathalyzing the planet - for the past 46 years.
It is an ideal site for the exercise, 2,000 miles from the
nearest land and protected by freak climatic conditions from
pollution from Hawaii, more than two miles below.

The latest measurements, taken a week ago, showed that carbon
dioxide had reached about 379 parts per million (ppm), up
from about 376ppm the year before, from 373ppm in 2002 and
about 371ppm in 2001. These represent three of the four
biggest increases on record (the other was in 1998), creating
an unprecedented sequence. They add up to a 64 per cent rise
over the average rate of growth over the past decade, of
1.8ppm a year.

The US scientists have yet to analyze the figures and stress
that they could be just a remarkable blip. Professor Ralph
Keeling - whose father Charles Keeling first set up the
measurements from Mauna Loa - said:"We are moving into a
warmer world".

© 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd