CO2 emissions going up despite recession by Zuzana Zelenakova

It is bit of a surprising development that pollution has risen in the time of recession. Usually when such an economic collapse occurs these numbers are going down. Not this time, however. Carbon dioxide pollution has increased by two percent last year according to the latest study and you don´t need to guess twice to figure out which country contributed the most to such a result. Oh, yeah, it is the boosting Asian tiger of China. "The growth in emissions since 2000 is almost entirely driven by the growth in China," said study lead author Corinne Le Quere of the University of East Anglia. "It's China and India and all the developing countries together." Since 2000 CO2! emissions have jumped more than three percent annually, during the 90s it was only 1.1 percent. Asia is partly covered by a layer of air pollution that is called Asian brown cloud. Naturally, the major impact is on health. According to study from 2002 two million people die in India every year due to illnesses inflicted by the cloud. Also weather patterns are affected as a result. However, the US still remain the biggest producer of man-made greenhouse gases per capita. When it comes to the overall production of carbon dioxide it is second. Next on the list are India, Russia, Japan, and Germany. "Basically these numbers are screaming out at decision makers that whatever they are doing now is not working," said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver. The next step for world leaders in this case is UN conference scheduled for December that will focus on reducing carbon emissions. US President Barrack Obama stated that he aims at something "that has immediate ! operational effect." Therefore he will support quite radical p! roposal by Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, who is hosting the conference in Copenhagen.

related story (sgx15945): http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091117/ap_on_sc/sci_carbon_poll...

by Zuzana Zelenakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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