The bad news for the fight against climate change is that the world's burning of coal, oil and natural gas this year is putting 1% more heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air than last year.
According to a study by scientists at the Global Carbon Project, emissions in the United States were higher than in China this year. Both are long term trends. American emissions had been decreasing while Chinese emissions had been increasing.
Pierre Friedlingstein, lead author of the study, told The Associated Press that it was a reaction to the energy crisis caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The data is hard to draw trends from and it is chaotic. He said that the Chinese government's attempt to control COVID-19 is one of the main reasons for the country's decline.
Friedlingstein said that much of the jump was in transportation with people's limits on travel during the Pandemic wearing off.
Global carbon pollution is increasing at a slower rate than it did a decade ago. Overall scientists said this is bad news because it is pushing Earth closer to hitting and then passing the globally adopted threshold oflimiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
"It means we better get ready to blow past the target and enter a world that humans have never experienced,'' said Michael Oppenheimer, who wasn't a member of the research team.
According to Friedlingstein's team, Earth can only put about 400 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air before it gets to 1.5 degrees. The globe will probably hit that point around 2031 or 2032.
Friedlingstein said the time for 1.5 was up.
Kim Cobb, a Brown University climate scientist, was not involved in the research team. It's hard to see a silver lining in rising emissions when we have to cut emissions in half by the end of the century.
The world is on track to put over 40 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide in the air by the year 2022. Every 75 minutes, the weight of the Great Pyramid of Giza is released into the air.
The United States saw emissions go up, as did India and Europe. The rest of the world had a small increase in carbon pollution.
Coal pollution went up 1% while oil pollution went up 2% and natural gas pollution went down 2%. Burning coal, oil and natural gas make up 40% of the carbon dioxide.
The team uses data from top carbon-emitting countries, including the U.S., China, India and Europe, to make projections for the rest of the year.
The A-team is on CO 2 emissions and the carbon cycle. They are aware of what they are doing.
Carbon emissions from fossil fuels plummeted in 2020 but rebounded last year, spurred by China, and are back on a rising trend, Friedlingstein said.
Overall emissions and the effects of land use are examined by the team. Emissions are unchanged when land use is taken into account.
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