Carbon/methane emissions rising.

21/04/09, NOAA, Colorado, USA--Two of the most important climate change gases increased in 2008, despite the economic downturn, according to a preliminary analysis for NOAA's annual greenhouse gas index, which tracks data from 60 sites around the world. Researchers measured an additional 16.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide, from burning fossil fuel and 12.2 million tons of methane in the atmosphere at the end of December 2008. "Only by reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and increasing energy production from renewable resources will we start to see improvements and begin to lessen the effects of climate change," said scientist Pieter Tans of NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. Methane levels rose in 2008 for the second consecutive year after a 10-year lull. Atmospheric concentrations increased by 4.4 molecules for every billion molecules of air, bringing total global concentrations to 1788 parts per billion, according to NOAA data. Pound for pound, methane is 25 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but there's far less of it in the atmosphere and it's measured in parts per billion. When related climate affects are taken into account, methane's overall climate impact is nearly half that of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide growth has increased by more than 2% each year since preindustrial times, doubling every 31 years, according to a study published in the journal Atmospheric Environment in March by David Hofmann, James Butler, and Tans.