CO2 levels in the Arctic growing at ”unprecedented rate”

Wednesday, 29 April 2009 09:04

According to new figures released by an internationally recognized measuring station on Svalbard, the concentration of carbon over the Arctic has reached a record high. This is not the greatest cause for concern, however.

“It is not the level of CO₂ that is the problem, because the earth will adapt. What is very worrying is the speed of change. Levels [here] are now increasing 2-3ppm a year,” said Johan Strom, Professor of atmospheric physics at the government-funded Norwegian Polar Institute, which collected the data.

"The rate of increase is much faster than only 10-20 years ago. You can almost see the changes taking place. Never before have CO₂ levels increased so fast," he added.

From 1970 to 2000, the global concentration of CO₂ rose by about 1.5ppm each year, but since 2000 it has risen to an average 2.1ppm. 

CO₂ levels are typically higher in the Arctic than the global average because there is more landmass and human activity in the northern hemisphere. As a result, human emissions from factories and transport tend to lead to higher CO₂ levels here.

The figures will concern policy-makers ahead of global talks on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol in December. Climate scientists advise that the world must prevent CO₂ levels from rising higher than around 450ppm CO₂ equivalent (a measure of global warming potential that incorporates other gasses such as methane and is higher than the measured CO₂ levels) to avoid a 2C increase on preindustrial global average temperature.

"There is less human influence here and most of the pollution comes straight here at this time of the year. From now on levels will reduce until the end of August when they will pick back up," said Strom.

"It is clearly the effect of human activity. Even if we stopped emitting now, we would have to live with this ... we will have to live with it for thousands of years, but that does not mean we should do nothing."

(Source: www.COP15.dk, the Guardian, London)