Massive burning of forests for agriculture thousands of years ago may have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide enough to alter global climate and usher in a warming trend that continues today, according to a new study that appears online Aug. 17 in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.
Researchers at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County say that today’s 6 billion people use about 90 percent less land per person for growing food than was used by far smaller populations early in the development of civilization. Those early societies likely relied on slash-and-burn techniques to clear large tracts of land for relatively small levels of food production.
“They used more land for farming because they …

The warming of an Arctic current over the last 30 years has triggered the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from methane hydrate stored in the sediment beneath the seabed.
Scientists at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton working in collaboration with researchers from the University of Birmingham, Royal Holloway London and IFM-Geomar in Germany have found that more than 250 plumes of bubbles of methane gas are rising from the seabed of the West Spitsbergen continental margin in the Arctic, in a depth range of 150 to 400 metres.
Methane released from gas hydrate in submarine sediments has been identified in the past as an agent of climate change. The likelihood of methane being released in …

Climate change or global warming is a major issue in today’s world but it only accounts for part of the damage being done to the environment currently. This damage will dramatically change the way the planet is able for provide for its inhabitants especially in the future. As a matter of fact, climate change isn’t actually the problem but a symptom of two far more important problems.
The first problem is the vast amount of the Earth’s natural resources that humans are currently consuming. This is a very large number especially in advancing economic countries. The second problem is that the waste from resource consumption spills into the Earth’s land and atmosphere and pollutes it. When …

Tasmania’s east coast is recording its highest-ever winter water temperatures of more than 13ºC – up to 1.5ºC above normal – due to a strengthening of an ocean current originating north of Australia.
Satellites have given oceanographers an insight into a remarkable phenomenon – a significant extension of the Leeuwin Current curling around the southern tip of Tasmania and reaching as far north as St Helens.
Remote sensing specialists at CSIRO’s Wealth from Oceans Flagship have been observing the current in recent days using satellite data, and ocean measurements made near Maria Island on Tasmania’s east coast.
“It’s important for us to monitor these changes in the ocean, as they can have consequences for marine ecosystems, fisheries, aquaculture, …

As the world’s environment ministers, government officials, diplomats and campaigners prepare to attend the COP15 conference in Copenhagen in December 2009 to unite in the battle against climate change in one of the most complicated political deals the world has ever seen, the increasingly complex territory of climate negotiations is being revealed in an article published today, 5 August, 2009, in IOP Publishing’s Environmental Research Letters.
The paper ‘Tripping Points: Barriers and Bargaining Chips on the Road to Copenhagen’ lays bare the main tripping points – political barriers and bargaining chips – which need to be overcome for countries to reach a consensus on how to address global climate change.
One of the key issues delegates will …

Arctic climate in the Late Cretaceous
New evidence for ice-free summers with intermittent winter sea ice in the Arctic Ocean during the Late Cretaceous ¡V a period of greenhouse conditions – gives a glimpse of how the Arctic is likely to respond to future global warming.
Records of past environmental change in the Arctic should help predict its future behaviour. The Late Cretaceous, the period between 100 and 65 million years ago leading up to the extinction of the dinosaurs, is crucial in this regard because levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) were high, driving greenhouse conditions. But scientists have disagreed about the climate at this time, with some arguing for low Arctic late Cretaceous winter temperatures (when …

Global food security in a changing climate depends on the nutritional value and yield of staple food crops. Researchers at Monash University in Victoria, Australia have found an increase in toxic compounds, a decrease in protein content and a decreased yield in plants grown under high CO2 and drought conditions.
The research, to be presented by Dr Ros Gleadow on 29 June 2009 at the Society for Experimental Biology Annual Meeting in Glasgow, has shown that the concentration of cyanogenic glycosides, which break down to release toxic hydrogen cyanide, increased in plants in elevated CO2.
This was compounded by the fact that protein content decreased, making the plants overall more toxic as the ability of herbivores to …