Climate: New study helps illustrate how CO2 affects Arctic

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
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A new study suggests the Earth’s climate system is more sensitive to CO2 changes than assumed by the IPCC’s 2007 global climate report.

Researchers establish longest regional climate record using sediment cores from an Arctic Lake that’s been undisturbed for 3.6 million years

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Sediment cores from a crater lake in Siberia are helping scientists understand how varying concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide affect the Arctic climate.

The sediment cores help establish the longest continuous climate record from the region, showing that the Arctic was a very warm place during a period about 3.5 to 2 million years ago, when CO2 levels were similar to today’s.

The research leads to the conclusion that even small fluctuations in CO2 can result in big changes in the Arctic, according to Julie Brigham-Grette, of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

The study indicates Arctic may have been much warmer during that era than other climate studies suggest, and that the planet’s climate system is probably more sensitive to CO2 levels than assumed in the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (more…)

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Climate: Atmospheric CO2 reaches 400 ppm

Posted on May 11, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Concentration will wane from seasonal high point, but long-term trend is up

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Mauna Loa. Photo courtesy USGS.

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Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere this week reached a level last recorded 2 to 5 million years ago.

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — Climate scientists have been closely tracking atmospheric carbon dioxide levels for a long time, but this week, the colorless, odorless gas made big headlines.

An atmospheric observatory on Mauna Loa for the first time measured daily concentrations of CO2 at slightly above 400 parts per million, a dubious milestone which, better than any other number, captures the extent to which we are changing the world. (more…)

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Climate: Study IDs new permafrost threat

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Bob Berwyn

Study suggests direct sunlight can trigger CO2 emissions from disturbed permafrost soils

USGS researchers make ground-based permafrost measurements in Alaska.

USGS researchers make ground-based permafrost measurements in Alaska.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Along with melting ice — one of the more obvious signs of global warming in the Arctic — the region is changing in other ways.

In some areas, long-frozen soils are melting and collapsing, forming potholes and other new landscape features, and the ancient carbon locked into those soils is extremely sensitive to sunlight. When it’s exposed, it releases heat-trapping carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere much faster than previously thought, according to University of Michigan ecologist and aquatic biogeochemist George Kling.

Climate scientists have long known that melting permafrost will release huge amounts of CO2, but the new findings suggest that exposure to sunlight will speed the process. (more…)

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Global warming: At current CO2 concentrations, sea level set to rise about 30 feet during the next few centuries

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Bob Berwyn
Concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

Average carbon dioxide levels will probably start to stay above 400 ppm sometime in 2013.

Analysis of 40-million year record calibrates CO2 concentrations with historic sea levels

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Even if  atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were to be stabilzed at today’s levels of about 400 parts per million, sea levels would gradually increase by about 30 during the next few centuries, according to researchers who calibrated CO2 levels against sea level for the past 40 million years.

The study sought to pinpoint the ‘natural equilibrium’ sea level for CO2 concentrations ranging between ice-age values of 180 parts per million and ice-free values of more than 1,000 parts per million. (more…)

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Climate: Global CO2 emissions to hit record high in 2012

Posted on December 2, 2012 by Bob Berwyn
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U.S. still by far the largest per capita emitter of greenhouse gases

By Summit Voice

FRISCO — As delegates to the COP 18 climate talks in Doha, Qatar struggle to find agreement on basic issues — like how to account accurately for greenhouse gas emissions — the Global Carbon Project is reporting that carbon dioxide emissions will climb by 2.6 percent in 2012 to reach a record high of 35.6 billion tons in 2012.

The biggest contributors to global emissions in 2011 were China (28 per cent), the United States (16 per cent), the European Union (11 per cent), and India (7 per cent). Overall, 2012 emissions are now 58 percent higher than in 1990, the baseline year for targets set under the Kyoto Protocol. (more…)

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Climate: Heat-trapping CO2 also makes ice more brittle

Posted on October 11, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

New MIT research suggests carbon dioxide has direct impact on glaciers and ice caps

Cracks in the ice on Dillon Reservoir, Dec. 25, 2012. Bob Berwyn photo.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Have you ever poured a can of warm coke into a glass full of ice cubes and listened to the cubes crack?

Something similar might be going on in the atmosphere, as MIT researchers have shown that direct exposure to carbon dioxide makes ice caps and glaciers more susceptible to cracking.

The study is the first to show this kind of a direct impact from increasing atmospheric CO2, which as a heat-trapping greenhouse gas is directly responsible for much of the increase in global temperatures during recent decades. (more…)

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Global CO2 emissions hit new high in 2011

Posted on July 22, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Global carbon dioxide emissions at new high in 2011.

Pace of greenhouse gas buildup increases

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Global carbon dioxide emissions hit an all-time record high of 34 billion tons in 2011, with the biggest jump coming in China, where per capita emissions are now at European levels of about 7.2 tons per person. Overall, Chinese CO2 emissions increased by 9 percent.

That puts China within the range of 6 to 19 tons of per capita emission, similar to rates in most major industrialized countries.

European Union CO2 emissions dropped by 3 percent in 2011, to 7.5 ton per capita.

The United States remain one of the largest emitters, at about 17.3 tons per capita, despite a decline due to the recession in 2008-2009, high oil prices and increased use of natural gas. (more…)

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More proof for link between CO2 levels and global warming

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Harvard study reinforces need to address greenhouse gas emissions

New research shows close link between CO2 levels and global warming.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Harvard scientists say their latest research offers yet more proof that carbon dioxide is the key culprit when it comes to global warming.

In a research paper published April 5 in Nature, the scientists compiled ice and sedimentary core samples collected from dozens of locations around the world, and found evidence that, while changes in Earth’s orbit may have touched off a warming trend, increases in CO2 played a far more important role in pushing the planet out of the ice age.

“Orbital changes are the pacemaker. They’re the trigger, but they don’t get you too far,” lead author Jeremy Shakun, a visiting postdoctoral fellow in Earth and Planetary Science Shakun, said. “Our study shows that CO2 was a much more important factor, and was really driving worldwide warming during the last deglaciation.” (more…)

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Commentary: Carbon tax needed to curb CO2 emissions

Posted on January 9, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

A map from the United Nations Environmental Programme shows relative CO2 production worldwide.

Leading climate economist argues that carbon tax would reflect true cost of global warming impacts

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — The oft-discussed cap and trade model for limiting carbon greenhouse gas emissions is inefficient and ineffective, according to Yale climate economist William Nordhaus, who last week advocated for supplementing or replacing cap-and-trade with a flat carbon tax that reflects the true environmental and societal costs of global warming.

Writing in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Nordhaus describes carbon dioxide emissions externalities, with social consequences not accounted for in the market place. They are market failures because people do not pay for the current and future costs of their emissions, he wrote. A carbon tax could be a useful means to cut budget deficits while meeting environmental objectives, he said. (more…)

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