Greenhouse gases are accumulating in the atmosphere at a rate much more rapid than previously predicted a top climate scientist and member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned. Chris Field a coordinating lead author of the IPCC Fourth assessment report says “we now have data showing that from 2000 to 2007, greenhouse gas emissions increased far more rapidly than we expected.”¹

According to Professor Field this is “primarily because developing countries like China and India saw a huge upsurge in electric power generation, almost all of it based on coal.”² Recent data shows the rapid growth in greenhouse gases between the year 2000 and 2007, by an average of 3.5 percent per year was greater than three times the 0.9 percent growth rate during the decade beforehand.³

Professor Field also explained that the oceans, and their capacity to sequester carbon from the atmosphere are being adversely affected by climate change “as the Earth warms, it generates faster winds over the oceans surrounding Antarctica... these winds effectively blow the surface water out of the way, allowing water with higher concentrations of CO2 to rise to the surface. This higher-CO2 water is closer to CO2-saturated, so it takes up less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”⁴

What makes this even more alarming are the findings of another recent study that show the risk of adverse events occurring as a result of even small changes in average global temperatures is now much higher than has been predicted in the past. “We have to assume that the risks of negative impacts climate change has on humans and nature are larger than just a few years ago”⁵ said to Dr Hans-Martin Fussel, an author of the report.

References