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Interviewer: Carbon dioxide is vital for life on Earth but an overload of greenhouse gas

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is driving one of the most serious problems facing our planet, climate change.

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In just two weeks world leaders will come together in one of the most important

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climate conferences ever, to set new global limits

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on carbon emissions amid a slowing global warming.

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Here to tell us more about this is Peter Griffith at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.  Thanks for joining us.

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Peter:  Thanks for having me on.

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Interviewer:  So world leaders will meeting in a couple of weeks to tackle climate change

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issues, what are NASA's observations telling us about how Earth is changing?

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Peter:  NASA's observations are telling us that the Earth is warming.

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Now we have a decades long view from

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satellites assimilated into models.

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This particular one is showing the global surface

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warming compared to the mid

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warming compared to the mid 20th century climatic average.

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So you can see by the time we end up in 2014, particularly in the high latitudes

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and polar regions, that the earth has warmed up quite a bit.

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And we know why this is.  We know it's because of carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere.

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Interviewer:  So NASA has a new global portrait of carbon dioxide

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the largest human produced driver of climate of climate change.

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Show us the view of the planet and what is the data telling us?

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Peter:  So this is the first year of data from the

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Orbiting Carbon Observatory.

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Prior to the satellite we had

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scattered ground station around the world but now with this

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view from space we can see how high CO2

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concentration in the atmosphere at the end of the winter shown in red

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is being absorbed

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taken up by the plants of the land and the oceans.

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And we can start to tease out  what parts of the planet

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are responsible the emissions

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and for the removal of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

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Interviewer:  Scientist have been talking about the mystery of carbon dioxide for years.

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Half of all emissions stay in the atmosphere but where does the rest go?

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This next animation will show you plant growth on the land and in the oceans.

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We can see the seasonal fluctuations as the winter, and spring, and summer

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progress from year to year.

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Observe that the plants of the land and ocean

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are taking up this CO2.

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There are some areas where CO2 fertilization

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is taking place where the plants are growing a little bit faster.

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Other areas that are regrowth forest like the eastern United States

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that are especially good at taking CO2 out of the atmosphere.

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This is a good thing, without what the biosphere is doing

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there would be even more CO2 in the atmosphere from human activates.

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Interviewer:  Now what is NASA doing to better understand how are Earth is changing?

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Peter:  NASA has a fleet of satellites that are observing the Earth

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from the unique vantage point of space.

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And we can simulate observations from these satellites.

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This particular view is of carbon dioxide

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moving through the atmosphere and we can see the areas.

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Whether it's from cities or forest fires

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from fossil fuel emissions were the carbon is being added to the atmophere

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and where it is moving as the winds blow the

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around the planet.

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Interviewer:  Tell us where can we learn more?

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Peter: You can on the internet go to

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nasa.gov/earth or follow #EarthRightNow

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on Twitter or on Facebook.

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Interviewer: Thanks so much for joining us.

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Peter:  You're welcome