Greenhouse gases showed record highs in 2012

BBC : Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide reached new highs in 2012, according to the World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO’s) most recent Greenhouse Gas Bulletin . Such heat-trapping greenhouse gases are responsible for a 32% increase in the climate warming effect over the past decade. Global average CO₂ levels alone have increased by 41% since the time of the Industrial Revolution. Yet only half of the CO₂ emitted by human activity remains in the atmosphere—the rest is absorbed by plants, land, and the oceans. A significant fraction of the trapped, excess heat ends up in the oceans, whose high heat capacity ensures that the effects of climate change will be felt for hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of years to come—even if the emission of greenhouse gases were to stop immediately. “As a result of this, our climate is changing, our weather is more extreme, ice sheets and glaciers are melting and sea levels are rising,” said Michel Jarraud , secretary-general of the WMO.