WILL AN ANCIENT CLIMATE-CHANGE REPEAT?

A
ScienceDaily report on an international study of the abrupt, runaway climate-change that took place 635 million years ago, due to a massive release of methane, raises the possibility that we may trigger a similar event, and cause a global temperature rise of tens of degrees.

REACTIVE NITROGEN AS SERIOUS AS CO2?

ScienceDaily reports the growing alarm among scientists at the increase in the environment of reactive nitrogen, which may be as serious a problem for the human race as the growing concentration of carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere.

In its inert form, nitrogen is harmless and abundant, making up 78 percent of the Earth's atmosphere. But in the past century, with the mass production of nitrogen-based fertilisers and the large-scale burning of fossil fuels, massive amounts of reactive nitrogen compounds, such as ammonia, have entered the environment.

A nitrogen atom that starts out as part of a smog-forming compound may be deposited in lakes and forests as nitric acid, which can kill fish and insects. Carried out to the coast, the same nitrogen atom may contribute to red tides and dead zones. Finally, the nitrogen will be put back into the atmosphere as part of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, which destroys atmospheric ozone.

CARBON-DIOXIDE HIGHEST IN 800,000 YEARS

ScienceDaily reports that the study of Antarctic ice-cores has established that the present concentration of carbon-dioxide is higher than it has been at any time during the past 800,000 years. It is now a bit more than 380 parts per million, compared to a range of about 200-300 parts per million during that time. The current concentration of methane is 1,800 parts per billion, compared to a range of about 400-700 parts per billion during that time.

OVER A QUARTER OF WORLD'S WILDLIFE GONE

Between a quarter and a third of the world's wildlife has been lost since 1970, according to data compiled by the Zoological Society of London, reports the BBC.

The Society says populations of land-based species fell by 25%, marine ones by 28% and freshwater ones by 29%, and that humans are wiping out about 1% of all other species every year--that one of the "great extinction episodes" in the Earth's history is under way.

GLOBAL OVERHEATING IS CHANGING NATURE

Major changes in the Earth's natural systems are being driven by global warming, according to a vast analysis, says a BBC report, citing research published in the journal Nature.

WE ARE ADDING CO2 14000 TIMES FASTER

Research on bubbles of ancient atmospheres in Antarctic ice shows that we are adding carbon-dioxide to the atmosphere 14,000 times faster than natural processes, throwing the global system so far out of equilibrium that it will not recover for hundreds of thousands of years.

The full report is in ScienceDaily.

The BBC's report has a simpler presentation of the same information with a slightly different emphasis.

19 BILLION TONS MORE CO2 ADDED IN 2007

Last year saw the third biggest increase in global carbon-dioxide since record-keeping began. Annother 19 billion tons poured into the air. There was also a surge in the amount of methane. 27 million tons were added after nearly a decade with little or no increase.

The concentration of carbon-dioxide reached 385 parts per million at the end of the year.

The full, nasty story is in ScienceDaily

GREENLAND MELTWATER CAN CRACK ICECAP

Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and the University of Washington have for the first time documented the sudden and complete drainage of meltwater from the surface of the Greenland icecap, and found that it can crack the cap all the way to the bottom. The consequent lubricating effect can increase the horizontal flow 50 to 100 percent.

The full report is in ScienceDaily.

JET-STREAM CHANGES MAY BOOST HURRICANES

The jet-streams are changing in ways that fit global-overheating models. They have risen, and shifted toward the poles. One consequence may be an increase in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, because jet-streams tend to inhibit their development, so the storms may become more powerful and more frequent as the jet-streams move away from the sub-tropical zones where they are born.

ANOTHER STUDY PREDICTS BIG SEA RISE

A new study presented at a major scientific conference in Vienna predicts that sea-levels could be a metre and a half higher by 2100 says a BBC News report.

That is much more than what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast in its assessment of climate science last year.

BLACK CARBON SECOND-WORST GLOBAL HEATER

As ScienceDaily reports, it has been found that black carbon--soot and other forms of particulate carbon--is the second worst source of global overheating after carbon-dioxide. An easy thing to get rid of, you would think.

ALARMING GROWTH IN CHINA'S CO2 EMISSIONS

The growth by 2010 is expected to be 600 million tonnes, which would make the reduction of 116 million pledged under Kyoto look silly. The authors of the study cited at ScienceDaily point out that the global-overheating numbers will have to be rethought.

CLIMATE-CHANGE HAVING BIG EFFECT ON OCEANS

Climate-change caused by greenhouse-gas emissions is rapidly changing the world's oceans by increasing their temperature and acidity, altering atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and having profound effects on ocean life, say scientists at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. ScienceDaily has a full report.

NASA GETS NUMBERS ON GREENLAND'S MELT

A new NASA study using precise measurements from multiple satellites, reported in ScienceDaily, confirms that the surface temperature of Greenland's massive ice-sheet is rising, stoked by rising air temperatures, and fuelling the loss of the island's ice at the surface and throughout the mass underneath.

SOLAR CELLS CUT POLLUTION 90 PERCENT

This article in Scientific American tells it straight. Even allowing for all the energy needed to make them, and even if that came from burning black stuff, they would still reduce pollution by 90% during their life-cycle if they replaced fossil fuels.

So why, why, why are we not putting production of them on a war-footing, globally, with massive injections of public money?

ZERO CO2 OR TOO HOT FOR 500 YEARS

A peer-reviewed study reported in ScienceDaily
shows that we have to cut our carbon-dioxide emissions to zero to save the planet, and that things have gone so far that even if we did that now, global temperatures would remain high for at least 500 years.

CAN ZIFS CAPTURE ALL THAT CO2?

Does this
Science Daily article on a new family of compounds called ZIFs herald the beginning of a new future, with the threat of global-warming removed, or is it something that only works in the lab or on a small scale? Can we make enough tonnage of ZIFs to capture enough carbon-dioxide to make a difference to the planet?

SPEED OF TIPPING-POINTS ESTIMATED

It has long been known that various climate systems can be tipped suddenly by climate-change from their present state to a very different one. Now a British team has put numbers on some of them. Three hundred years sounds safe for those alive now, assuming that it doesn't come down to within a lifetime as models are refined and more data comes in. But one year, or ten, or fifty? Not fine.

Lowlights in the list that shows how long it would take for them to make a major transition, once tipped:

Dieback of the Amazon rainforest: about 50 years.
Dieback of the Boreal Forest: about 50 years.
Greening of the Sahara/Sahel and disruption of the West African monsoon: about 10 years.
Melting of Arctic sea-ice: about 10 years.
Collapse of the Indian summer monsoon: about 1 year.

The full report is on the BBC. An even fuller report is at Science Daily.

MEASURING THE RISE AND RISE OF THE OCEANS

The BBC's website has a good overview of the effect of climate-change on the sea and the technology used to measure it.

WEST ANTARCTICA MELT PROVES IPCC WRONG

The rate at which West Antartica is losing ice, up 75% in the last ten years, shows that the models used by the IPCC to predict sea-level rise are wrong.

Click here for ScienceDaily's report and here for the NZ Herald's.