Climate Capsule Week of September 29

Highlight of the Week
In 2007, CO2 Output Jumps To Record Level

The current concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is the highest during the last 650,000 years, and probably during the last 20 million years, according to the Global Carbon Project.

The world increased CO2 output by 3 percent from 2006 to 2007, new numbers considered “scary” by some and surprising to many who thought economic downturns would slow energy consumption.    

This amount of pollution exceeds the highest growth for fossil fuel emissions as projected two years ago by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Associated Press reports.

Forests and oceans, which help extract carbon dioxide, are doing so at lower rates than in last century, scientists said. This may result in faster-than-anticipated sea level and temperature rises. 

China is the world’s greatest emitter, followed by the United States. Though some nations slightly decreased CO2 output, the U.S. pumped out more in 2007.  

Others are proving that emissions reduction is a manageable process for developed nations. Denmark's emissions dropped 8 percent; the U.K. and Germany reduced CO2 pollution by 3 percent, and France and Australia reduced fossil fuel emissions by 2 percent, the AP reports. 

Climate Action: Great Lakes Compact
National Wildlife Federation and the Alliance for the Great Lakes applaud the U.S. Congress for sealing historic protections for the Great Lakes that have been a decade in the making.

The House of Representatives last week ratified the Great Lakes Compact, a bill aimed to prevent the diversion of water from the Great Lakes region. 

Eight Great Lakes states negotiated the compact after more than four years of talks involving business, scientific and environmental interests. The Compact was approved on a vote of 390-25 and now moves to President Bush, who has said he will sign it by October 7. The Senate approved the Compact in August.

“This is a historic day for all of us who depend on the Great Lakes – and that’s millions of people, businesses, farmers and communities,” said Andy Buchsbaum, regional executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office. “For the first time ever, the Great Lakes will be truly protected from water depletion. The Great Lakes Compact will keep the Great Lakes great for the next millennium.”

The Great Lakes contain more than 90 percent of the fresh surface water in the United States.  Though seemingly abundant, less than 1 percent of the Great Lakes water is renewed each year, leaving the lakes vulnerable to depletion.

That vulnerability is even more precarious in the face of global warming, which threatens to shrink lake levels.

Together with companion laws in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, the compact stresses conservation and establishes first-of-its-kind decision-making standards for Great Lakes water use.

National Wildlife Federation, as co-chair of the Healing Our Waters® - Great Lakes Coalition, is leading a national campaign to urge enactment of a comprehensive restoration plan to modernize sewage treatment, clean-up polluted harbors, restore wetlands, and prevent unwanted, new species from invading the lakes. We must act now to restore the lakes and safeguard our Great Lakes way of life.