Greenhouse gas emissions increased at a higher rate than expected for 2007, according to reports released this week.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions jumped 3% from 2006 to 2007, surprising many researhers who thought a global economic downturn would slow the increase of emissions.
In addition, the earth’s forests and oceans are absorbing CO2 at a slower rate than during the 20th century, leading many climate scientists to believe that global warming will proceed at a pace that matches or surpasses the most pessimistic projections.
According to the new figures, China has definitively passed the United States to become the largest emitter of CO2, and India will soon overtake Russia to claim the #3 spot.
If this trend continues for the century, "you’d have to be luckier than hell for it just to be bad, as opposed to catastrophic," said Stanford University climate scientist Stephen Schneider.
Read the full Associate Press coverage.
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