wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  The Straits Times 3 May 06
 Greenhouse gases continue to rise
 Reuters, Associated Press, Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON - GREENHOUSE gases - widely blamed for raising the planet's temperature - continue to rise inexorably, according to latest figures published. In China, state media warn that Tibetan glaciers are melting at a rapid rate, triggering drought, desertification and sandstorms in other regions.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Monday that there was a continuing increase in carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide in the air last year, although methane had levelled off. Two chlorofluorocarbons, which are gases blamed for the ozone hole over the Antarctic, also declined, it said.

Overall, the annual NOAA greenhouse gas index 'shows a continuing, steady rise in the amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere'. The index was set at a base value of 1.0 in 1990. Last year, it was 1.215, the agency said.

The index is based on the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in 1990, the year chosen because the global Kyoto Protocol that aims to limit emissions of these gases also picked it as a baseline.

Greenhouse gases, produced by industry, vehicles and other engines, tend to trap heat from the sun at the planet's surface, reducing the amount of heat radiated back out into space. The result has been a gradual increase in temperatures over recent decades.

Most of the increase is attributed to carbon dioxide, which the NOAA said accounted for 62 per cent of radiative warming by greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide rose from an average of 376.8 parts per million (ppm) in 2004 to 378.9ppm last year. The pre-industrial carbon dioxide level is estimated to have been about 278ppm.

Also on Monday, delegates from around the world kicked off a 12-day meeting in New York to assess long-term energy solutions while reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

As world leaders fretted over the issue, countries like China are already feeling the heat. Glaciers covering the Qinghai-Tibet plateau were shrinking by 7 per cent a year because of global warming, state media reported yesterday.

The environmental consequences may be dire, the Xinhua news agency said. Rising temperatures that have accelerated the melting of glaciers across the 'roof of the world' will eventually turn the tundra that spans Tibet and the surrounding high country into desert, Xinhua quoted Professor Dong Guangrong of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as saying.

Prof Dong reached his conclusions after analysing four decades of data from 681 weather stations in China. He warned that the deterioration of the plateau may trigger more droughts and unleash sandstorms in western and northern China.

Mr Han Yongxiang of China's National Meteorological Bureau said average temperatures in Tibet had risen 0.9 deg C since the 1980s, accelerating the melting of glaciers and frozen tundra across the plateau. The Qinghai-Tibet plateau covers 2.5 million sq km - about a quarter of China's land surface - at an average altitude of 4,000m above sea level.

Dust and sandstorms are a growing problem, particularly in northern China, because of deforestation, drought and the environmental depredations of the country's breakneck economic growth.

Northern China, including Beijing, has suffered 13 dust storms this year which were attributed to desertification in the north-western regions, including Qinghai province. In the worst storm, on April 17, an estimated 336,000 tonnes of dust fell on the capital, leaving air quality at hazardous levels.
links
Related articles on Global warming
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com