Pro-climate protestors fill streets as scientists reveal source of carbon overload

Spurred chiefly by China, the United States and India, the world spewed far more carbon pollution into the air last year than ever before, scientists announced Sunday as world leaders gather to discuss how to reduce heat-trapping gases. The team projects that emissions of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas from human activity, are increasing by 2.5 percent this year. The scientists forecast that emissions will continue to increase, adding that the world in about 30 years from now will warm by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius). In 2009, world leaders called that level dangerous and pledged not to reach it.

Time is running short. The more we do nothing, the more likely we are to be hitting this wall in 2040-something.

Pierre Friedlingstein of the University of Exeter in England

News of the study comes as tens of thousands of people marched in New York and across the globe on Sunday, joined by celebrities and political leaders to demand urgent action to stem climate change. In London, an estimated 40,000 people paraded past Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament, including British actress Emma Thompson who likened the threat posed by climate change to a Martian invasion. They were the largest of around 2,500 events and marches taking place around the world ahead of a climate change summit hosted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

World climate march