TROUBLING

Warming Gases Reach Record High

CO2 grew more rapidly in 2012 than average.

Gases that drive global warming reached record high levels in 2012, with carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide levels increasing more rapidly last year than in its average rise over the past decade, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Meteorological Association. The rapid increase of these gases has increased warming effects by almost a third since 1990. It’s not all recent effects, either: since the start of the industrial era in 1750, global average levels of CO2 in the atmosphere have increased by 141 percent. Although there has been a slowdown in temperature increases in the past few years, scientists warned that people shouldn’t get too comfortable: the oceans have been sucking up the extra heat, but soon that heat will come out into the atmosphere.