Gas prices jump in Calgary as long weekend approaches and carbon dioxide levels rise

Just in time for the long weekend, gas prices are on the rise in Calgary and atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels around the world continue to grow.

Regular fuel at some stations jumped to $1.159 perlitre Thursday morning.

That's 20 cents per litre higher than what many Calgarians were paying a week ago, according to the fuel-price tracking site gasbuddy.com.

Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rose to 410 parts per million, on average, based on data from monitoring stations in Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa and Antarctica.

That's 107 parts per million higher than a century ago, according to the CO2-tracking site nasa.gov.

What's behind the increases?

Dan McTeague, an analyst with Gas Price Wizard,says there are several factors at play in the recent fuel-price increase, includinga tightening of gasoline supply in the United States, political tensions between the U.S and Iran and uncertainty over trade tariffs between the U.S. and China.

"We've seen Edmonton and Calgary prices move up ... moving in a direction that suggests there's a little bit of a risk premium in themarket," he said.

Ralph Keeling, a geochemist with theScripps Institution of Oceanography, says there are several factors at play in the recent rise of carbon dioxide in the air, including the combustion of gasoline, diesel and natural gas.

"The rise in CO2 is unambiguously caused by human activity, principally fossil-fuel burning," he wrote."This is clear from the numbers: We know how much fossil fuel is converted into CO2 each year and emitted into the atmosphere."

McTeague said the U.S.-China trade dispute is a "big-ticket item" that could have a further impact on prices in the future. He'll be closely watching the G20 meetings this week in Japan for either a resolution to the trade dispute or continued uncertainty in the market.

Keeling says the large-scale combustion of fossil fuels is a major source of carbon dioxide in the atmospherethat could have a further impact on the Earth's climate in the future. He'll be closely watching the planet'sCO2 levels which he says are unprecedented in the past 800,000 years.

"At no point in this period were levels as high or increasing as fast," Keeling wrote."No surprise because it's only recently that we humans have been burning billions of tons of fossil carbon each year."