More Bad News for Doha, World: Global Warming Could Easily Reach 5C
December 4, 2012 Greenhouse Gas emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are rising annually by three percent, a pace that could bring the world up to a five degrees Celsius (9.0 degrees Fahrenheit) increase by 2100, and reek catastrophic destruction on the earth as we know it, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change by the Global Carbon Project consortium on Sunday.
Currently, leaders at the international climate conference COP18 in Doha, Qatar are struggle to agree on ways to limit the world to a 2C (3.6F) maximum rise in global temperatures, with very little progress one week into negotiations as talks balance on the edge of self-destruction.
"We are on track for the highest emissions projections, which point to a rise in temperature of between 4C (7.2F) and 6C (10.8F) by the end of the century," said Corinne le Quere, a carbon specialist at the University of East Anglia, eastern England.
The study is based on national carbon dioxide (CO2) data estimates for 2011 and 2012 which saw a rise in CO2 emissions globally by a 3.1 percent annual average -- a rate that the is sure to quickly exacerbate climate change induced extreme weather events and food shortages.
Last year, all the world's nations combined put nearly 38.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air through burning fossil fuels such as coal and oil. This total amounts to more than 2.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide released into the air every second.
Glen Peters at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, Norway told the Associated Press that the only way to to start reducing world emissions now is to "throw everything we have at the problem."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/12/02-2