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November 1, 2016
New, Space-Based View of Human-Made Carbon Dioxide
Scientists have produced the first global maps of human emissions of carbon dioxide ever made solely from satellite observations of the greenhouse gas.
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August 8, 2016
As Peat Bogs Burn, a Climate Threat Rises
Kristyn Housman grabbed the end of a sampling auger, a steel tube that two colleagues had just drilled into a moss-covered hummock in a peat bog, and poked through a damp, fibrous plug of partly decomposed peat.
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July 6, 2016
NASA Flights to Track Greenhouse Gases Across Eastern US
This month, NASA begins an airborne experiment to improve scientists’ understanding of the sources of two powerful greenhouse gases and how they cycle into and out of the atmosphere.
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June 13, 2016
Carbon dioxide levels in atmosphere forecast to shatter milestone
Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 will shatter the symbolic barrier of 400 parts per million (ppm) this year and will not fall below it our in our lifetimes, according to a new Met Office study.
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April 25, 2016
United States absorbed carbon dioxide despite a drought
The warm spring of 2012 in the U.S. caused plants to absorb more carbon, thereby compensating for reductions during the subsequent summer drought, researchers have demonstrated.
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March 16, 2016
Trees Deal With Climate Change Better Than Expected
The bend-don’t-break adaptability of trees extends to handling climate change, according to a new study that says forests may be able to deal with hotter temperatures and contribute less carbon dioxide to the atmosphere than scientists previously thought.
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February 26, 2016
Consumers care about carbon footprint
How much do consumers care about the carbon footprint of the products they buy? Would they care more if the goods were labeled with emissions data?
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February 25, 2016
How Northern European waters soak up carbon dioxide
The seas around the UK and the rest of northern Europe take up a staggering 24 million tonnes of carbon each year.
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February 24, 2016
New climate model better predicts changes to ocean-carbon sink
Since pre-industrial times, the world's oceans have absorbed 41 percent of the carbon dioxide humans have released into the atmosphere. The remainder stays airborne, warming the planet.
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February 22, 2016
Antarctic ice sheet is more vulnerable to carbon dioxide than expected
Results from a new climate reconstruction of how Antarctica's ice sheets responded during the last period when atmospheric carbon dioxide reached levels like those expected to occur in about 30 years, plus sediment core findings reported in a companion paper, suggest that the ice sheets are more vulnerable to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide than previously thought.
Watching the planet breathe
When plants photosynthesize, they use energy from sunlight to turn carbon dioxide from the air into sugars used to live and grow. In doing so, they give off a fluorescent light — a glow that can’t be seen with the naked eye, but that can be seen with the right instruments. More photosynthesis translates into more fluorescence, meaning that the plants are very productive in taking up carbon dioxide. The amount of carbon dioxide taken up by plants is called “gross primary productivity,” and is the largest part of the global carbon cycle.