To the AFP : ” Harmful carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels made their biggest ever annual jump in 2010, according to the US Department of Energy’s latest world data released this week. “
Global greenhouse gases emissions rose by SIX percent compared to 2009. This represents no less than 564 million more tons of carbon. Out of this, China is responsible for almost half of it alone. US emissions kept rising too…
Such an increase – when we have to stabilize our emissions and even slash them by a factor three by 2050 – is a really bad omen for our common future…
But as Grist notes, there are some good news :
Developed countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol did actually succeed in reducing their emissions since the agreement was signed in 1997. So if we can get developing countries, and backwards ones like the U.S., up to speed, maybe we still have a chance.
I indeed noted that European Union has managed to keep its emissions from climbing while its economy grew. Now, we just need to do that for the whole Planet… It will be a huge task that will need our undivided attention to all of us.
This is even more the case as Treehugger reports this increase exceed worst case scenario previously presented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007.
I know this sounds foolish, but I persist in saying that we need nuclear. We need ALL means to prevent the worse from occurring. Yes to renewables, a huge resounding YES to efficiency and conservation but also yes to nuclear.
And we need to act fast as a study carried out by the Massachussets Institute of Technology that business as usual scenarios would lead to an increase of 10°F of global temperatures by 2095.
I will publish this week another article on the very subject, so stay tuned…
