Record Growth for Greenhouse Gases in 2010

The world economy might be bottoming out, but our ability to pump hazardous gas into the atmosphere has never been stronger.

Humanity set a new standard in greenhouse gas emissions in 2010, increasing the amount of carbon dioxide gas produced on the planet by a whopping six per cent over the year before. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, we released 9.13 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2010 – that's 512 million more tons of carbon than we did in 2009, and the biggest jump ever recorded. It's also more than than any one country can produce in an entire year, with the exception of the U.S., China, and India. It also surpasses the "worst-case scenario" total envisioned by climatologists just four short years ago. Go us! Half of the new emissions came from the U.S. and China, while the rest of the world covered the other 250 million or so new metric tons. Canada was also found to be the ninth-leading emitter in the world, as it was responsible for 141 million metric tons of emissions in 2010. The top 10 emitters are:

1. China (2.248 billion metric tons)

2. United States (1.498 billion metric tons)

3. India (564 million metric tons)

4. Russia (461 million metric tons)

5. Japan (310 million metric tons)

6. Germany (208 million metric tons)

7. Iran (157 million metric tons)

8. South Korea (154 million metric tons)

9. Canada (141 million metric tons)

10. Saudi Arabia (135 million metric tons)