NOAA's Muted Release Of Climate Study Hides Fact That Annual Rate Of CO2 Buildup Fastest On Record - 8 Billion Tons/Year [View all]

Climate-warming carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere grew at a record-breaking speed in 2024, surging by 3.7 parts per million, a recent NOAA data analysis has found. It’s one of the agency’s biggest scientific findings of the year — yet the research largely has flown under the radar after NOAA officials took steps to minimize the announcement.

Instead of publishing a press release or a featured article online, the agency described the findings only in social media posts on Facebook and on X. And the posts failed to highlight the dataset’s most important finding: that last year’s CO2 concentrations jumped by an unprecedented amount. That’s a departure from the agency’s historical approach to public communication. NOAA typically releases a public report each spring, prominently featured on its website, describing the previous year’s greenhouse gas concentrations. It also usually sends a press release to members of the media.

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Natural landscapes, such as forests and wetlands, historically have acted as a carbon sink — soaking up excess CO2 emissions and helping to offset some of the impacts of climate change. But some of these ecosystems may be breaking down under the stress of continued warming, with the added side effects of droughts and wildfires. And they’re storing less carbon in the process. “In my opinion, there is no reason to believe that this will not continue with further dry years in the future,” said Philippe Ciais, a climate scientist at the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace in France.

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Meanwhile, studies have found that fossil fuel emissions also reached a record high in 2024. Those emissions can’t account for last year’s CO2 surge all on their own. But they’re part of the puzzle, and a major indicator that the world is not tackling global warming quickly enough to meet the Paris Agreement’s climate goals. “The policy goals say, well, we still have some time to reach 2 degrees,” Ciais said. “But all these predictions are based on the fact that the carbon absorption will stay good.”

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https://www.eenews.net/articles/trumps-noaa-downplayed-a-huge-finding-co2-surged-last-year/