Global
Warming Spirals Upwards
By Geoffrey Lean
30 March, 2004
The Independent
Levels
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have jumped abruptly, raising fears
that global warming may be accelerating out of control.
Measurements by
US government scientists show that concentrations of the gas, the main
cause of the climate exchange, rose by a record amount over the past
12 months. It is the third successive year in which they have increased
sharply, marking an unprecedented triennial surge.
Scientists are at
a loss to explain why the rapid rise has taken place, but fear that
it could show the first signs that global warming is feeding on itself,
with rising temperatures causing increases in carbon dioxide, which
then go on to drive the thermometer even higher. That would be a deeply
alarming development, suggesting that this self-reinforcing heating
could spiral upwards beyond the reach of any attempts to combat it.
The development
comes as official figures show that Britain's emissions of the gas soared
by three per cent last year, twice as fast as the year before. The increase
- caused by rising energy use and by burning less gas and more coal
in power stations - jeopardizes the Government's target of reducing
emissions by 19 per cent by 2010.
It also coincides
with a new bid to break the log jam over the Kyoto treaty headed by
Stephen Byers, the former transport secretary, who remains close to
Tony Blair.
Mr Byers is co-chairing
with US Republican Senator Olympia Snowe a new taskforce, run by the
Institute of Public Policy Research and US and Australian think tanks,
which is charged with devising proposals that could resolve the stalemate
caused by President Bush's hostility to the treaty.
The carbon dioxide
measurements have been taken from the 11,400ft summit of Hawaii's Mauna
Loa, whose enormous dome makes it the most substantial mountain on earth,
by scientists working for the US government's National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration.
They have been taking
the readings from the peak - effectively breathalyzing the planet -
for the past 46 years. It is an ideal site for the exercise, 2,000 miles
from the nearest land and protected by freak climatic conditions from
pollution from Hawaii, more than two miles below.
The latest measurements,
taken a week ago, showed that carbon dioxide had reached about 379 parts
per million (ppm), up from about 376ppm the year before, from 373ppm
in 2002 and about 371ppm in 2001. These represent three of the four
biggest increases on record (the other was in 1998), creating an unprecedented
sequence. They add up to a 64 per cent rise over the average rate of
growth over the past decade, of 1.8ppm a year.
The US scientists
have yet to analyze the figures and stress that they could be just a
remarkable blip. Professor Ralph Keeling - whose father Charles Keeling
first set up the measurements from Mauna Loa - said:"We are moving
into a warmer world".