Recent record growth in atmospheric CO2 levels

Excessive levels of carbon dioxide are accumulating in the atmosphere, principally from burning fossil fuels, and according to media releases on the current growth of CO2 in the global atmosphere in 2004, the concentration of the gas has risen from 290 ppm pre-industrially to new levels of 375 ppm. Economic growth in China has increased the carbon emissions per head towards the environmentally unsustainable levels of the Western economies. Australia has been second to the US in terms of global coverage, and second to none in terms of overall quality and consistency of records for the species CO2, CO2 isotopes, CO, CH4, N2O, and H2. Seasonal variations are large in the Northern hemisphere and small in the Southern, reflecting the distribution of land mass. The CO 2 growth variations are similar globally, but can vary depending on proximity to regional sources and are thus most clearly defined at high southern altitudes. Inverse global carbon cycle models, pioneered in Australia, are used to locate and quantify surface emissions from the atmospheric data. The potential to accurately pinpoint and quantify surface greenhouse gas emissions, from long-term trace-gas monitoring networks and modeling approaches, is however observed to be encouraging.