Bad News for Hysterics: Growth in Carbon Emissions Slows

We can probably chalk this one up to Al Gore keeping his mouth shut much of the past two months, ever since Live Earth bombed.

Growth in carbon emissions slows

LONDON (Reuters) - Growth in global emissions of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas carbon dioxide slowed slightly last year, preliminary data from the U.S. Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) suggest.

CDIAC is the primary source of climate-change data and information analysis for the U.S. Department of Energy. In the past, its preliminary emissions estimates have been subsequently revised upwards.

"It is hard to put too much emphasis on the last number in a time series, it is always the most subject to revision," said Gregg Marland, senior scientist at CDIAC and at Austria's International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

Marland told Reuters that CDIAC's latest, unpublished data show carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, making cement and flaring natural gas, rose 2.6 percent in 2006, versus 3.3 percent in 2005.

Emissions in 2004 and 2003 rose 5.4 and 4.7 percent respectively.

Of course, we'll probably be told it's because of "awareness" and how people are now behaving responsibly.