Cloud feedback adds 50-100% to climate sensitivity

Posted on December 12, 2010 by Rolf Schuttenhelm

According to Atmospheric Sciences Professor Andrew Dessler, of Texas A&M University, in an interview with BBC’s Science in Action.

Recession saved us 4 days of CO2

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Rolf Schuttenhelm

In total, over the last year. That’s not a joke, but a quote of Pierre Friedlingstein, of Exeter University. Due to the global economic downturn, the world’s CO2 emissions were 1.3 percent lower. That is just half the expected decline, … Continue reading →

After Copenhagen: Cancún, Kyoto… or Montreal?

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Rolf Schuttenhelm

Chlorofluorocarbons are up to 11,000 times as potent as greenhouse gases as CO2. The Montreal Protocol locked away some 4 years of regular CO2 emissions. And if we try really hard – and look for every old fridge on the … Continue reading →

Arctic ocean acidification faster than predictions

Posted on November 5, 2010 by Rolf Schuttenhelm

Cold water absorbs more CO2, so it is around the Poles that the consequences of ocean acidification are first felt. Pteropods – tiny swimming Arctic sea snails – have difficulty building their shells at CO2 levels very close to the … Continue reading →

Dirty China is surprisingly clean

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Jorn van Dooren

China is well known as the world’s top polluter, but surprisingly it also appears to be a top player in clean energy efforts, according to the Vivid Economics report, commissioned by Australia’s Climate Institute and released on Tuesday.

NASA: temperature is all about CO2

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Rolf Schuttenhelm

Two new studies by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies help improve basic quantitative understanding of the Earth’s greenhouse system. The one, ‘CO2: The Thermostat that Controls Earth’s Temperature’, is a Goddard climate model based study (lead-author Andrew Lacis) to … Continue reading →

Today 33 miners are rescued, this year 12,000 die

Posted on October 13, 2010 by Rolf Schuttenhelm

The Chilean miners are world-famous, as they are unlikely survivors – after being feared dead for two weeks, following the collapse of a mining tunnel. Luck is very rare at such depths. Every year thousands die in mining accidents worldwide, … Continue reading →

A little extra attention for 350 please

Posted on October 10, 2010 by Rolf Schuttenhelm

Today is 10/10/10, global day of climate action. After the disappointments of Copenhagen – where UN emission targets (‘staying below 2 degrees requires stabilisation at 450 ppm,’ says IPCC 4AR) were not met by great margins – the global climate … Continue reading →

Insects add 4th generation to biofuels debate

Posted on October 9, 2010 by Rolf Schuttenhelm

Good news from Norway. Sustainable biofuel production is perhaps another tiny step closer. Soon we may be able to start burning bugs.

Shellfish malformed by ocean acidification

Posted on October 3, 2010 by Rolf Schuttenhelm

A publication in next week’s edition of PNAS magazine elaborates on the effects of continued acidification of ocean waters on shellfish. Larvae of two species of shellfish commonly found along the American East Coast (Northern quahog and Atlantic bay scallop) … Continue reading →

Bits of Science

Tag Archives: CO2