Tuesday, November 17, 2009

In the past, global recessions have at least been accompanied by a drop in pollution. But not this time.

New figures from the Department of Energy show worldwide carbon dioxide pollution jumped 2% last year, and most of it came from China.

A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience finds U.S. emissions fell by 3% last year, though the U.S. still emits more carbon per person than any other country.

Meanwhile, China's booming economy, along with other fast developing nations such as India, helped boost greenhouse gas emission by 671 million tons from 2007 to 2008. While a large portion of those emissions come from power plants, about a quarter of the emissions from developing countries are tied to the manufacturing of products shipped to western countries like the U.S.

The study's authors say the world has spewed as much industrial carbon dioxide into the atmosphere since 1982 as civilization produced in all previous years.