journalist: covering climate change, science, politics, technology, energy, law
New Climate Science
Photo by Patrick Emerson, 2008, Creative Commons/Flickr
Crocodiles and Palm Trees in the Arctic? New Report Suggests Yes.
By Marianne Lavelle
May 23, 2016, National Geographic News
In even the bleakest climate change scenarios for the end of this century, science has offered hope that global warming would eventually slow down. But a new study published Monday snuffs out such hope, projecting temperatures that rise lockstep with carbon emissions until the last drops of oil and lumps of coal are used up.
Global temperatures will increase on average by 8 degrees Celsius (14.4 degrees F) over preindustrial levels by 2300 if all of Earth’s fossil fuel resources are burned, adding five trillion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere, according to the research by Canadian scientists published in Nature Climate Change. In the Arctic, average temperatures would rise by 17 degrees C (30.6 degrees F).
Those conclusions are several degrees warmer than previous studies have projected. Read the rest of the story at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160321-climate-change-petm-global-warming-carbon-emission-rate/
Photo by Graham Walton, 2001, Creative Commons/Flickr
Earth Hasn’t Heated Up This Fast Since the Dinosaurs’ End
By Marianne Lavelle
March
Carbon is pouring into the atmosphere faster than at any time in the past 66 million years—since the dinosaurs went extinct—according to a new analysis of the geologic record. The study underscores just how profoundly humans are changing Earth’s history.
The carbon emissions rate is ten times greater today than during the prehistoric hot period that is the closest precedent for today’s greenhouse warming.
That period, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), was marked by a massive release of the Earth’s natural carbon stores into the atmosphere. (It’s not clear what caused the PETM, but volcanic eruptions and methane gas release are suspects.) The excess carbon triggered a 5°C (9°F) temperature increase, along with drought, floods, insect plagues, and extinctions.
The new analysis of the sediment record concludes that the carbon rush at the start of the PETM extended over at least 4,000 years. That translates to about 1.1 additional gigatons of carbon per year. Today, fossil fuel burning and other human activity release 10 gigatons of carbon annually. Read the rest of the story at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/03/160321-climate-change-petm-global-warming-carbon-emission-rate/
