Climate change refers to the fluctuation of the climate system caused by the energy entering and leaving Earth. The greenhouse effect, which refers to how greenhouse gases (GHGs) act like a blanket and prevent the loss of Earth’s heat to space, has occurred naturally throughout Earth’s history. However, since the Industrial Revolution, human activities have […]
Tag Archives | Carbon dioxide
Marine organisms evolving in response to ocean acidification
Researchers at Plymouth University have found that polychaete worms living in acidified waters exhibit a tendency to nurture their offspring to a greater extent than those in more regular conditions. The polychaete worms in question live around volcanic vents in the Mediterranean. They grow and develop their eggs within the protection of the family unit […]
Major advance in artificial photosynthesis uses sunshine to create fossil fuel analogs
A major breakthrough in artificial photosynthesis has been achieved with the development of a system that can capture carbon dioxide emissions and convert them into valuable chemical products, including biodegradable plastics, pharmaceutical drugs and even liquid fuels. Developed by scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley, the system uses […]
Chinese tree planting reverses global forest loss
Although massive vegetation loss is still occurring in Asia and South America, an analysis of 20 years of satellite data has revealed that the regrowth of forests in China, Australia, and Africa mean that the total amount of vegetation globally has increased by almost 4 billion tons of carbon since 2003. The new analysis, by […]
Scientists discover breathing to be the primary mechanism for weight loss
It’s long been known that human fat cells are composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. What’s just been discovered by Australian scientists is that when we “burn” fat, almost all the broken-down fat molecules are exhaled through the lungs as carbon dioxide. The research team, led by Ruben Meerman and Andrew Brown of the […]
Strangely, the loss of forests may actually be cooling the planet
An intriguing study from Yale University shows that large-scale forest losses over the last 150 years – largely through the conversion of forests to cropland – produced a net global cooling effect of about 0.1 degrees Celsius. During the same period, the global climate warmed by about 0.6 degrees Celsius, mostly due to increases in […]
Rising CO2 causing nutritional content of crops to fall
Field tests by University of California – Davis scientists have shown conclusively that rising levels of carbon dioxide inhibit plants’ ability to assimilate nitrates into proteins. The findings, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, indicate that the nutritional quality of food crops such as wheat, barley, rice, and potatoes is at risk as climate […]
Oceanic food-chain undergoing dramatic changes
Increasing levels of carbon dioxide appear to be changing the biodiversity of the oceanic ecosystem, most notably the keystone bacterial organisms that form the foundation of the ocean’s food-chain. Reporting their findings in Nature Geoscience, the researchers say they are uncertain as to what the long term effects of these climate-driven selection pressures will be. […]
“Green” biofuels anything but
A detailed new study on greenhouse gas emissions from oil palm plantations has calculated a more than 50 percent increase in levels of carbon dioxide emissions than previously thought – and warns that the Western world’s demand for “green” biofuels could be costing the Earth. The findings, by researchers at the University of Leicester (UK), […]
CO2 Rocketing, Carbon Sinks Failing
Man’s activities are releasing carbon dioxide faster than ever, while the natural processes that normally slow its build up in the atmosphere appear to be weakening, suggests a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The report states that “together, these effects characterize a carbon cycle that is generating stronger-than-expected climate […]