According to global data from the U.S. Department of Energy, carbon emissions released from burning fossil fuels made their largest annual jump ever in 2010 - a 500-million metric ton increase in a single year.
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WASHINGTON: Harmful carbon emissions released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels made their largest annual jump in 2010, according to global data released this week by the U.S. Department of Energy.
China led the way with a spike of 212 million metric tons of carbon in 2010 over 2009, compared to 59 million metric tons more from the United States and 48 million metric tonnes more from India in the same period.
"It's big," said Tom Boden, director of the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre Environmental Sciences Division at the Department's Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
"Our data go back to 1751, even before the Industrial Revolution. Never before have we seen a 500-million-metric-tonne carbon increase in a single year."
Big three polluters: China, U.S. and India
The 512 million metric tonne boost amounted to a near 6% rise between 2009 and 2010, going from 8.6 billion metric tons to 9.1 billion. Large jumps in carbon emissions from burning coal and gas were visible in China, the United States and India, the world's top three polluters, according to the data which was posted online this week by the Oak Ridge Lab.
Significant spikes were also seen in Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Poland and Kazakhstan.
Some countries, like Switzerland, Azerbaijan, Slovakia, Spain, New Zealand and Pakistan actually showed slight declines from 2009 to 2010, but those nations were uncommon. Much of Europe showed a moderate uptick.
Stabilising economy to blame?
The pollution measurements could indicate economic recovery from the global recession of 2007-2008, according to Boden."At least from an energy consumption standpoint, companies were back to manufacturing levels that rivaled pre-2008 levels, people were travelling again so emissions from the transportation sector rivalled those of pre-2008," he said.
But the data also raised concerns about the health of the environment.
"This is very bad news," said mechanical engineer John Abraham from the University of St. Thomas Minnesota, who has also worked on projects for the U.S. Department of Energy. "These results show that it will be harder to make the tough cuts to emissions if we are to head off a climate crisis."
Initial shock at spike
The data is derived from U.N. statistics gathered from every country in the world about fossil fuel energy stockpiles, imports, exports and production, as well as energy data compiled by oil giant BP.
"If you know how much of a fuel is consumed and you know the oxidation rate and you know the carbon content of the fuel, you can derive the emission estimate, so it is a pretty straightforward algorithm as far as the calculation," said Boden.
The U.S. team has been calculating the data in the same way over the past two decades, so the hike in 2010 was initially viewed with disbelief by researchers, he said.
"We were a bit shocked. Our first reaction was, 'Gee there must be some problems in the underlying energy data'. Then, when we actually started to explore other data streams, like the population data, like GDP data, and when we started to look at the actual atmospheric data, all of it paints a consistent picture and we believe it."
Can natural carbon sinks keep pace?
Boden added that the planet has been able to keep up, to some extent, with the rising carbon by absorbing more through forests and other so-called carbon sinks. "We are loading more carbon into the atmosphere. The question is are the natural sinks like the terrestrial biosphere able to keep that up?"
According to climate scientist Scott Mandia from, Suffolk County Community College in Long Island, New York, the latest data should serve as warning that our fossil fuel burning habits must change.
"Science tells us that we are driving in a fog headed toward a cliff but are unsure just how far away it is," said Mandia. "Given this warning, it is quite foolish to be stepping on the accelerator."
