In a new study that expands our understanding of how humans contribute to global warming, scientists have discovered that human activity has changed the terrestrial biosphere to make it a significant contributor to climate change. Published in Nature, the study looked at the net balance of the three major greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, and […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Conventional thinking on climate change holds that human emissions of carbon dioxide have been the major contributor to global warming, but an intriguing new study that examined data going back to the Industrial Revolution indicates that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) conspiring with cosmic rays are the real culprit. The research, by Professor Qing-Bin Lu at the University […]
Climatologists in the U.S. say that dozens of active volcanoes spewing sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere have been offsetting about a quarter of the greenhouse warming on Earth over the last decade. Study leader Ryan Neely, from the University of Colorado Boulder, explained that sulfur dioxide emissions from Earth’s surface eventually rise 12 – 20 […]
Schistocephalus solidus, a parasitic worm that infects fish, has been found to grow much more rapidly at higher temperatures, alarming scientists who warn that warming oceans could see the worm decimate fish populations. The new research into S. solidus’lifecycle has been published in the journalGlobal Change Biology. The work provides some of the first evidence […]
Astonishingly, climatologists can’t account for roughly half of the heat that is believed to have built up on the Earth in recent years. “The heat will come back to haunt us sooner or later,” lament National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) scientists in an article in the journal Science. The scientists believe that satellite sensors, […]
Public awareness campaigns such as “Meatless Mondays” and Europe’s “Less Meat = Less Heat” are scientifically inaccurate, says a researcher who contends there is no evidence for repeated claims that diets rich in animal products lead to an increased production of greenhouse gases. Air quality expert Frank Mitloehner, from the University of California-Davis, presented his […]
Fifty-five million years ago, the Earth experienced a rapid jump in global carbon dioxide levels that raised temperatures across the planet. Now, researchers studying fossilized plants from that time have found that the rising temperatures may have boosted the foraging of insects. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could […]
