Greenhouse gases widely blamed for causing global warming have climbed to record highs in the atmosphere, an Arctic researcher has revealed.

"Levels are at a new high," said Kim Holmen, research director of the Norwegian Polar Institute, which oversees the Zeppelin measuring station on the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, about 1200 kilometres (750 miles) from the North Pole.

He said that concentrations of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, emitted largely by burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, had risen to 390 parts per million from 388 ppm a year ago.

Levels have hit peaks almost every year in recent decades and are far above 270 ppm level seen before the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century.

Holmen said the increase of 2 ppm from 2006 reflected an accelerating rise in recent years. "When I was young, scientists were talking about 1 ppm rises" every year, he said. "Since 2000, it has been a very rapid rate."

http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11213

[New high! Maybe we should give the industry an award for their important efforts and cut down the regulations a bit?]