CO2 levels still rising fast

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The average concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from 390 to 392 parts per million in the last year, according to Scandinavian researchers.

Measurements taken by Stockholm University on the Norwegian Arctic island of Svalbard in December suggest the long term trend in CO2 levels is continuing, Kim Holmen, research director at the Norwegian Polar Institute, told Reuters.

The current CO2 concentration is believed to be the highest in 800,000 years. Yet this level has been reached after a 40 per cent increase just in the last 150 or so years since the Industrial Revolution began in earnest.

When taking into account the other main greenhouse gases, also on the rise in the atmosphere, the overall greenhouse concentration is thought to be closer to 450 ppm. Scientists believe that the planet’s tolerance limit to greenhouse gas levels lies between 450 to 550 ppm, beyond which dangerous climate change would occur.

The onset of worldwide recession has brought predictions that emissions growth will now be slowing but the figures show no sign of it yet. Latest computer modeling from the UK Institute of Mechanical Engineers suggests that if emissions continued to grow at the current rate of around 2ppm per year dangerous changes will begin to occur by 2050. These includes the melting of the Greenland ice sheet.