Greenhouse Gas not behaving
Carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere much faster than scientists expected, raising fears that humankind may have less time to tackle climate change than previously thought.
New figures from dozens of measuring stations across the world reveal that concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, rose at record levels during 2006 - the fourth year in the past five to show a sharp increase.
Experts are puzzled because the spike, which follows decades of more modest annual rises, does not appear to match the pattern of steady increases in human emissions.
At its most far-reaching, the finding could indicate that global temperatures are making forests, soils and oceans less able to absorb carbon dioxide - a shift that would make it harder to tackle global warming.
Such a shift would worsen even the predictions of the Stern Review, which warned that we had little over a decade to tackle rising emissions to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
Interpreting the journalists here, it seems that one or more of several things is happening:-
1) Greenhouse gas has, indeed, passed some magic "tipping point" and we are all doomed. My house will soon become beachfront property (Always buy real estate at least above 25 m above present-day sea level)
2) Greenhouse gas has, all along, been strongly driven by natural effects, and much less so by human emissions (does this mean that we can relax, or that we have to do MORE to beat the natural trend?)
3) The measurements are unreliable
4) The climate models are unreliable