CO2 Emission Growth Rate More Than Doubles - Less Than 1% In 1990, 2.5%+ In 2005 - SMH

[hatrack]

Global efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions have had little impact with the rate of emissions more than doubling since the 1990s. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research scientist, Mike Raupach, said that from 2000 to 2005, the growth rate of carbon dioxide emissions was more than 2.5 per cent per year. "In the 1990s it was less than one per cent per year."

In 2005, 7.9 billion tonnes of carbon were emitted into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This was near the high end of the fossil fuel use scenarios considered by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said Dr Raupach, who is also co-chair of the Global Carbon Project, an international scientific collaboration to study the carbon cycle.

"On our current path, it will be difficult to reign (sic) in carbon emissions enough to stabilise the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration at 450 ppm," he said.

While China had the highest current growth rate in emissions, its emissions per person were still below the global average and its accumulated contribution since the start of the industrial revolution more than 200 years ago was only five per cent of the global total. By comparison, the US and Europe have each contributed more than 25 per cent of accumulated global emissions.

EDIT

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/greenhouse-emission-rate-doubles/2006/11/27/1164476104550.html

[kestrel91316]

1. We are simply screwed.

[mom cat]

8. Shit! My other planet is not ready yet. Only radical conservation will save us

I have taken to keeping my thermostat at 45 degrees. Yes it is uncomfortable, but not nearly as uncomfortable as runaway global warming or a new ice age from the shutdown of the Atlantic current. We have got to do radical conservation or die.

edited for spelling

[kestrel91316]

9. As long as we have Cheney insisting "the American way of life is not

negotiable", we won't have enough people willing to sacrifice to make any difference.

We are gonna fall off a cliff at some point, I think. And it won't be pretty.

[mom cat]

11. Fuck Cheney! Those of us who know what is going on can at the very least live our

own lives as responsibly as possible and do everything we can to spread the message. All revolutions come from below and this one won't be different. Certainly the actions of one individual are a drop in the bucket, but many individuals working together can make a world of difference.

[phantom power]

2. That pretty much says it all.

[Dead_Parrot]

3. Oh Fuck. nt

[Javaman]

4. I envision the last moments on the Titanic...

There are 3 groups of people. 1)Those who knew and did nothing to save themselves. 2) those who knew and tried to get into the life boats 3) those who knew and couldn't get into a life boat.

Group #1 are the corps that realized a long time ago that we were screwed but rather than do something and hopefully slow things down a bit, they chose to just watch the teeming masses struggle to survive and drink brandy.

Group #2 are the corps that are completely denying that there is a problem but behind the scenes are doing everything they can to save their asses and still make money at the same time.

and lastly

group #3 the rest of us. The on coming global warming is at such a Titanic (sorry) level that it appears that no matter what we the population in steerage can do, it just won't be enough without the help of the major corp polluters.

I haven't given up hope and I do try to do my part to lessen my carbon footprint, but sadly each and every day something new comes out to re-break my heart.

I remember the most frightening scene from that awful movie, it was the passengers clutching to the aft rail watching the water rush up to them as they took the express elevator down to an icy hell.

We will see that on a global scale very soon, unless some real laws are passed to wake everyone the fuck up.

I pray.

[NNadir]

5. An apt analogy.

I often think that there are people, though, who upon seeing a lifeboat, would ask whether the lifeboat has been fully certified in North Atlantic waters, and whether the lifeboat would meet the luxury standards commensurate with the ticket they purchased.

[Dead_Parrot]

6. The ship's carpenter is building a new lifeboat right now.

He says it will be able to carry everyone, has all the features of the titanic, is perfectly safe, and will be ready just in time.

Anyone getting on the lifeboats we have now is clearly insane and dangerous.

[NNadir]

7. I thought as much. I'm sure the lifeboat will be wind powered too.

Obviously, because the Titanic is sinking, coal powered ocean liners don't work.

[kestrel91316]

10. Wind-powered boats (remember those things called sails?) worked

quite well for, oh, millennia IIRC.

A wind-powered lifeboat would suffice for me. I guess I'm weird.

[NNadir]

12. Especially if you're on the Titanic.

There is no reason to get into an oar powered life boat when wind powered life boats could possibly offer a cleaner and safer solution. As you say, wind technology is known to work quite well.

Here is sailboat technology under utilization in an actual sea:



If this technology were scaled up - something that is being blocked by cruel capitalists at the Ocean Liner corporations - we could avoid the construction of thousands of Titanics, or rescue the victims of thousands of Titanics.

Not only are oar powered lifeboats uncomfortable and require the presence of corn fed sailors who consume important agricultural resources, but oars can stir up sea based organisms in the air that could have unsalutory respiratory effects. Because the rowing sailors would exhale carbon dioxide, there is also a climate change risk.

By contrast, sail powered life boats are powered by clean, safe renewable energy.

If I were on the sinking Titanic, I would definitely insist on wind powered lifeboats or I would simply have to insist on staying where I am. I don't make ethical compromises.