Greenhouse gas emissions for 2009 actually collapsed, as the
world was in the midst of a global recession. Recessions tend to
depress economic productivity – by their very definition – and
reduce demand for electricity generation (a primary source of
carbon emissions in the US and China). That results in less
greenhouse gas emissions, in terms of burning carbon fuels,
transport of goods and factory production. But that brief
reprieve on emissions has ended, according to the latest
studies: Global emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel
burning jumped by the largest amount on record last year,
upending the notion that the brief decline during the recession
might persist through the recovery. Emissions rose 5.9 percent
in 2010, according to an analysis released Sunday by the Global
Carbon Project, an international collaboration of scientists
tracking the numbers. Scientists with the group said the
increase, a half-billion extra tons of carbon pumped into the
air, was almost certainly the largest absolute j