A knowledge gap exists in the area of climate research: for decades, scientists have been asking themselves whether, and to what extent man-made aerosols, that is, dust particles suspended in the atmosphere, enlarge the cloud cover and thus curb climate warming. Research has made little or no progress on this issue.
Two scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg (MPI-M) and the American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) report in the journal Nature that the interaction between aerosols, clouds and precipitation is strongly dependent on factors that have not been adequately researched up to now. They urge the adoption of a research concept that will close this gap in the knowledge. (Nature, …

Climate Central’s climate characters: Now appearing on TIME.com
Many people worry about the link between rising bark-beetle infestations and an increase in western wildfires. But Dr. Susan Prichard, a Research Scientist at the University of Washington, adds another concern: what happens after the fires go out?
Prichard’s story is the latest in a series of video shorts featured on TIME.com and produced by Princeton, NJ-based nonprofit Climate Central, an authoritative, non-advocacy source for science-based information about climate change. The series introduces viewers to people from all walks of life who are studying or dealing with the impact of climate change today.
Climate Central’s Correspondent and Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Heidi Cullen, interviewed Prichard. Cullen says Prichard helps bring …

Using a completely new method, researchers have shown that high atmospheric and oceanic oxygen content makes the climate colder.
In prehistoric times, the earth experienced two periods of large increases and fluctuations in the oxygen level of the atmosphere and oceans. These fluctuations also lead to an explosion of multicellular organisms in the oceans, which are the predecessors for life as we know it today. The results are now being published in Nature.
Everybody talks about CO2 and other greenhouse gases as causes of global warming and the large climate changes we are currently experiencing. But what about the atmospheric and oceanic oxygen content? Which role does oxygen content play in global warming?
This question has become extremely …

Inaction already threatening multi-billion dollar coral reef services and livelihoods of half a billion people
Investing in restoration and maintenance of the Earth’s multi-trillion dollar ecosystems – from forests and mangroves to wetlands and river basins – can have a key role in countering climate change and climate-proofing vulnerable economies.
This is among the central findings of a new climate issues update by The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), a project launched by Germany and the European Commission in response to a proposal by the G8+5 Environment Ministers (Potsdam, Germany 2007) to develop a global study on the economics of biodiversity loss. The study is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme. The issues update was …

The future of the Earth could rest on potentially dangerous and unproven geoengineering technologies unless emissions of carbon dioxide can be greatly reduced, a new study has found.
The report (published September 1, by the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science) found that unless future efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are much more successful than they have been so far, additional action in the form of geoengineering will be necessary to cool the planet. However, the report identified major uncertainties regarding the effectiveness, costs, and environmental impacts of geoengineering technologies.
“Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions is more important than ever,” said coauthor Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, “but even …

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 …

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 …