HR: 13:40h
AN: A13H-01 INVITED [Abstracts]
TI: Observations Show that the Increase of Carbon Dioxide is Fully Caused by Human Activities.
AU: * Tans, P P
EM: Pieter.Tans@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305, United
States
AB:
There are two independent lines of evidence showing that the observed increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide
is 100% due to human activities. The first is mass balance. The observed increases in the atmosphere and
oceans add up, within uncertainty, to the total amount emitted from the burning of fossil fuels. The second line of
evidence rests on observed changes in isotopic ratios of carbon dioxide. Interannual variations of the global
atmospheric growth rate can be shown to depend largely on variations in temperature and precipitation. Removal
of the variance caused by the latter factors clearly brings out the acceleration of the growth rate in recent years,
which is almost certainly caused by the acceleration of the global emissions. Trends of the observed
atmospheric spatial pattern do not contradict the above assertions.
DE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting