May
2007
Climate change0
30-Apr-2007 Traffic restriction over a 3-day period in Beijing managed to reduce emissions of one class of polluting gases by a whopping 40%, say researchers. “I don’t think a proper analysis has ever been made before of such a remarkable shift of environmental policy in such a short period of time,” says Harvard’s Michael McElroy. “I think the real value here is that these kinds of restrictions can really bring about significant change.”
28-Apr-2007 Researchers disprove a recent study suggesting that plants emit the potent greenhouse gas methane. Using a photo-acoustic laser technique, the team of Dutch scientists found that methane emissions from plants are negligible, and do not contribute to global climate change.
The methods were so highly sensitive that the scientists could measure the carbon dioxide in the breath of ants.
Questions remain and the gap in the global methane budget does need to be properly addressed, say the researchers. But there is no reason to “reassess the mitigation potential of plants”.
26-Apr-2007 Strange things happen in the twilight zone. Carbon dioxide absorbed by photosynthesizing marine plants near the sunlit ocean surface does not all sink to the depths.
Instead the carbon on sinking marine particles is often consumed by animals and bacteria, and recycled in the twilight zone—100 to 1,000 meters below the surface—so it never reaches the deep ocean.
Using new technology, a multi-national team has discovered that the twilight zone acts as a gate, allowing more sinking particles through in some regions and fewer in others. This makes it more difficult for the moment to predict the ocean’s role in offsetting the impacts of greenhouse gases.
17-Apr-2007 Climate change could trigger boom and bust population cycles that make animal species more likely to go extinct. Conditions that produce plenty of food and result in a population boom set the stage for a later population crash.
3-Apr-2007 The maximum extent of Arctic sea ice in winter 2007 was the second lowest on satellite record, narrowly missing the 2006 record, according to a team of University of Colorado at Boulder researchers.
11-Dec-2006 The Arctic Ocean could become nearly free of ice in summer by 2040, according to calculations on the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. Simulations on supercomputer show that the ice could disappear very suddenly. Story and science teaching resources (US or UK English) posted at www.realscience.org.uk
