Author Archives: Rolf Schuttenhelm

Sulphur switch in algae new route to marine cloud geoengineering?

Marine bacteria produce two types of sulphur compounds as they eat dead algae biomass. The one, methanethiol, or MeSH, is cycled downwater into the food chain. The other forms a liquid aerosol, dimethylsulfide, or DMS. The latter plays an important … Continue reading →

World population forecast increases by 0.5 to 1 billion in just two years

…comparing either 21st century peak population or 2100 population. Somewhere this year (October 31 says UN’s big computer) the 7 billionth human inhabitant of this planet will be born – then starting to emit his of her average annual 5 … Continue reading →

If solar minimum caused Little Ice Age we would have big freeze now

It is often suggested that lower total solar irradiance (TSI) due to a decline in solar activity (less sunspots) was responsible for the Little Ice Age, a period of colder weather conditions from the end of the Middle Ages to … Continue reading →

Rapid krill decline: 80% over 35 years

Antarctica does not escape the Holocene Mass Extinction. Krill numbers have dropped sharply since the mid-70s and as a consequence penguins too are in decline, says new study in Monday’s edition of PNAS, that blames the ecological disturbances on climate … Continue reading →

New cloud geoengineering research casts doubts: 70x less effective & smallest salt aerosols increase warming

Marine cloud seeding is one of the best documented geoengineering proposals. It is centred around the idea that some forms of clouds tend to have a net cooling effect on the Earth’s climate, by increasing albedo or reflectivity. Our regular … Continue reading →

Today’s paradox: current Arctic ozone depletion sign of global warming

The WMO today reports rapid and record-breaking thinning of the ozone layer over the Arctic region over the course of this winter and early spring – with now 40 percent of it gone. Unusually low temperatures in the stratosphere, even … Continue reading →