Scientists have found that CO₂ levels in the atmosphere are rising faster than expected, according to an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). Even the most CO₂ heavy scenarios projected by the IPCC in the late nineteen nineties didn’t predict the present level of growth.

The article also examines the source of the new CO₂ emissions. Although the usual suspects, China in particular, do account for quite a bit of it the authors point out that no single region has managed to actually reduce the amount of CO₂ it produces.

Parts of the rising levels of Atmospheric CO₂ can be explained by the fact that carbon sinks aren’t pulling as much of it out of the air as before. But the main cause is the high, and rising, level of CO₂ emissions.

PNAS offers both an abstract and the full article (pdf, 1MB)