The latest news from the Guardian couldn't be more dire for our hopes for regaining our balance and slowing our species' headlong stumble toward a more volatile climate. A more erratic less dependable climate pattern that could have catastrophic consequences for the functioning ecosystems our modern civilization depends on.
Large rise in CO2 emissions sounds climate change alarm
Hopes for 'safe' temperature increase within 2C fade as Hawaii station documents second-greatest emissions increase.
By John Vidal
guardian.co.uk, Friday 8 March 2013
The chances of the world holding temperature rises to 2C – the level of global warming considered "safe" by scientists – appear to be fading fast with US scientists reporting the second-greatest annual rise in CO2 emissions in 2012.
Carbon dioxide levels measured at at Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii jumped by 2.67 parts per million (ppm) in 2012 to 395ppm, said Pieter Tans, who leads the greenhouse gas measurement team for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The record was an increase of 2.93ppm in 1998.
Of course the worst case scenario would be this GHG increase is showing the first indications of a feedback loop amplifying the annual increase. But it is too soon to know if that could be the underlying cause in this case. The scary fact is that once a carbon feedback loop becomes observable, it is almost certainly irreversible (in the sort term).