Archive by date | November 2009

That (carbon) sinking feeling

Daniel Cressey; cross-posted from The Great Beyond The world’s carbon dioxide ‘sinks’ are not able to keep up with the amount of the greenhouse gas being produced, according to a paper published in Nature Geoscience. Reviewing the recent literature Corinne Le Quéré, of the University of East Anglia, and colleagues report that between 1959 and 2008 43% of each year’s carbon dioxide emissions have remained in the atmosphere with the rest being absorbed by land and ocean sinks. However in the last 50 years they suggest that the fraction remaining in the atmosphere has increased from about 40% to 45%.  Read more

Montreal delegates hold off on HFC amendment

Jeff Tollefson; cross-posted from The Great Beyond <img alt=“roadtocopenhagen.jpg” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/climatefeedback/roadtocopenhagen.jpg” width=“150” height=“220” align=“right” hspace=“10px”//>International delegates to the Montreal Protocol wrapped up their meeting in Port Ghalib, Egypt, over the weekend without taking formal action to curb hydrofluorocarbons, modern refrigerants that are also poised to become a major contributor to global warming. Some 41 countries joined in a declaration in support of regulating HFCs as greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol, according to the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development and the Environmental Investigation Agency. This is in addition to support in North America and Europe as well as Micronesia and  … Read more

Australian agency denies gagging climate researchers

Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), has denied claims that it prevents researchers from publishing work on politically-sensitive issues such as climate change, reports Nature News [subscription].  Read more