Carbon Output Continues to Accelerate, Exceeding Predictions

Carbon output is rising four times as fast this decade as in the 1990s, and it continued to accelerate through last year’s economic downturn, according to new data from the Global Carbon Project. The report by an international group of scientists confirmed some projected trends: Developing countries now produce the bulk of the chief global-warming gas — led by China, which has surpassed the United States as the top carbon polluter and which single-handedly churned out 21 percent of the total in 2007. But the most significant findings surprised some scientific observers: Emissions rose 3 percent from 2006 to 2007, topping the worst-case scenario of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Meanwhile, forests and oceans absorbed a smaller percentage of CO₂, leaving more in the atmosphere. “Things are happening very, very fast,” said Corinne Le Quere, a British scientist who worked on the report. “It’s scary.”