Australian coal plays its part is pushing CO2 levels higher

Chinese growth powered largely by Australian coal is been implicated in pushing global greenhouse gas emissions to the highest ever levels.

Bill McKibben in his
350.org T-shirt.

Tom Arup has written in the Melbourne Age that in 2012 the world emitted 35419.89 million tonnes of those damaging gases.

Arup wrote that 2012 record was almost certain to be bettered yet again in 2013.

Writing in his story headed: “Greenhouse gas emission hit highest ever level”, Arup quoted new data from the Global Carbon Project.

“But”, Arup wrote, “the latest data suggests the world’s emissions could be slowing. The approximate 2 per cent growth in 2012 and 2013 falls short of the 3.1 per cent average rise since 2000.

However, we should not draw too much comfort from this observation of “slowing” for emissions already in earth’s atmosphere far exceed what might be described “healthy” – the damage is already done and a two degree increase is certain and many highly credentialed climatologists are predicting a four-degree increase this century.

Carbon dioxide emissions in pre-industrial times were about 280 parts per million (ppm) and just recently we passed 400ppm, increasing the global temperature by nearly one degree.

Many, including climate change advocate, Bill McKibben, had warned for years that humanity could only prosper with emissions at 350ppm or lower and now some are suggesting that this century we could be witnessing a rise to 500 or 600ppm producing temperatures in excess of four degrees, resulting in a world on which humans would find it decidedly difficult to live.