Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels are increasing much more rapidly than expected, with the United States responsible for a major portion of the upswing, according to a paper to be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The lead the author of the paper, Mike Raupach of Australia's national science agency, determined that the average growth rate of CO2 emissions increased from 1.1
per cent a year in the 1990s to a three per cent increase per year in the 2000s. That's an overall increase of 6 billion tonnes (around 6.6 billion US tons) of CO2 emitted globally in 1995 to 8 billion tonnes (around 8.8 billion US tons) in 2005.
Photo: Greg Chiasson
