Greenhouse gas levels still climbing, CO2 now up to 389 ppm, says UN

It's got to be difficult to accurately measure and predict the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, but if tests by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) are correct, then things are getting worse than people originally thought.

The WMO is the UN's "authoritative voice on weather, climate and water" and it recently found that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere were higher in 2010 than at any point since pre-industrial time - and the air is filling up with these gases at a faster rate than before. During the 10,000 years before the start of the industrial age, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is estimated to have been around 280 ppm. Today, we're at around 389. How fast has it been growing recently? In the 1980s, the rate of increase was 1.5 parts per million. In the 1990s, it was 2.0 ppm. For the first decade of the new millennium, it was 2.3 ppm. WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud said in a statement that:

The atmospheric burden of greenhouse gases due to human activities has yet again reached record levels since pre-industrial time. Even if we managed to halt our greenhouse gas emissions today - and this is far from the case - they would continue to linger in the atmosphere for decades to come and so continue to affect the delicate balance of our living planet and our climate.

Cars and other transportation methods are certainly not the only reason for an increase in CO2, and the press release after the jump give additional figures for other GHGs, like methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), but they play a role. The growing CO2 figures, in particular, reflect in some small way an effect of all our driving.

Continue reading Greenhouse gas levels still climbing, CO2 now up to 389 ppm, says UN