Methane From Arctic Lakes

University of Alaska Fairbanks
Lead author: Katey Walter
Where published: Science

We estimate that as much as 10 times the amount of methane that is currently in the atmosphere will come out of these lakes as permafrost thaws in the future.

article

Extinctions Linked to Rising Temperatures

U. York, U. Leeds
Lead author: Peter Mayhew
Where published: Proceedings of the Royal Society B

The issue here is that we are creating the climate change, and we are creating the climate change at an unprecedented rate ... clearly we are creating the events for a climate-related mass extinction that wouldn't otherwise be happening.

article

Oceans Capacity to Absorb CO2 Diminished

Global Carbon Project, Dept of Global Ecology
Lead authors: Chris Field, Joseph Canadell
Where published: Proceedings of the Natl Academy of Sciences USA

For every ton of CO₂ emitted [into] the atmosphere, the natural sinks are removing less carbon than before ... This trend will continue into the future ... A greater buildup of CO₂ means more warming.

article

Marine Fossils Show CO2 as Driver of Warming

Cal Tech, U Ottawa, Memorial U Newfoundland, Brock U
Lead author: Rosemarie Came
Published: Nature

A team of American and Canadian scientists has devised a new way to study Earth's past climate by analyzing the chemical composition of ancient marine fossils. The first published tests with the method further support the view that atmospheric CO2 has contributed to dramatic climate variations in the past, and strengthen projections that human CO2 emissions could cause global warming.
article

Increase of Methane

University of Bristol, University of London, Department of Geology, Palaeontology Dept Lead Authors: Richard D. Pancost, David S. Steart, Luke Handley
Where Published: Nature

if the processes occurring at Cobham were widespread, then the increase in
methane emissions could have caused further warming, amplifying the climate
change at this time.

article

abstract

Methane Fueled Ancient Global Warming

University of Bristol
Lead author: Richard Pancost
Where published: Nature

Huge belches of methane from bogs in what is now Britain likely contributed to global warming some 55 million years ago ... The finding adds weight to the idea that methane being released from wetlands today may accelerate modern global warming.
...
Methane already appears to be seeping out of once frozen bogs in Siberia.

article

Increase In Atmospheric Moisture Tied To Humans

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories
Lead author: Benjamin Santer
Where published: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

The atmosphere's water vapor content has increased by about 0.41 kilograms per square meter (kg/m²) per decade since 1988, and natural variability in climate just can't explain this moisture change. The most plausible explanation is that it's due to the human-caused increase in greenhouse gases.
...
More water vapor -- which is itself a greenhouse gas -- amplifies the warming effect of increased atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide.

article

More Hurricanes

NCAR, Georgia Inst. of Technology
Lead authors: Greg Holland, Peter Webster
Where published: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society

Hurricane researchers say they have uncovered an ongoing rise in the number of Atlantic hurricanes that tracks the increase in sea surface temperature related to climate change.
article

Surface Ozone Impacting Plants

Met Office, U Exeter, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Lead authors: Stephen Sitch, Peter Cox
Where published: Nature

Increasing ozone near the Earth's surface could lead to significant reductions in regional plant production and crop yields. Surface ozone also damages plants, affecting their ability to soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and accelerating global warming. Near-surface ozone has doubled since 1850 due to chemical emissions from vehicles, industrial processes, and the burning of forests.
article

Impact on Northeast US

Union of Concerned Scientists

If heat-trapping emissions are not significantly curtailed, global warming will substantially change critical aspects of the Northeast's character and economy ... Winters will be on average 8 to 12 degrees warmer by the end of the century, and summers 6 to 14 degrees hotter ... the environment of the Northeast would be transformed, and Boston, Atlantic City, New York and other cities would all be subject to disastrous flooding on a regular basis.

study

Sun Not the Cause of Recent Warming

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, U. Southampton, World Radiation Centre
Lead Authors: Mike Lockwood, Claus Froehlich
Where Published: Nature

Cyclical changes in the sun's energy output are not responsible for Earth's recent global warming ... Instead the findings put the blame for climate change squarely on human-created carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases—reinforcing the beliefs of most climate scientists.

article
study

Models Consistent with Ocean Warming

Livermore Labs, Scripps
Lead author: Krishna AchutaRao
Where published: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Climate models can replicate the ocean warming observed during the latter half of the 20th century, and that most of this recent warming is caused by human activities ... casts doubt on recent findings that the top 700-meters of the global ocean cooled markedly from 2003-2005.

article

Close to Tipping Point

NASA, Columbia U.
Lead Author: James Hansen
Where published: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Human-made greenhouse gases have brought the Earth’s climate close to critical tipping points, with potentially dangerous consequences for the planet.
article

Significant Ice Loss in Greenland

NASA
Lead author: Bill Krabill

Greenland has experienced a significant loss of ice ... a continuing trend of ice loss on the island.
article

CO2 Emissions Accelerating

Global Carbon Project
Lead author: Michael Raupach
Where published: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

CO2 emissions from cars, factories, and power plants grew at an annual rate of 1.1 percent during the 1990s, according to the Global Carbon Project, which is a data clearinghouse set up in 2001 as a cooperative effort among UN-related groups and other scientific organizations. But from 2000 to 2004, CO2 emissions rates almost tripled to 3 percent a year – higher than any rate used in emissions scenarios for the reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

article

Plants Less Able to Absorb Carbon

Bristol University
Lead author: Wolfgang Knorr
Where published: Geophysical Research Letters

We find that the remarkable feature of the 2002-03 anomaly seems to be that climate fluctuations - not only related to El Niño and occurring across all latitudes - acted together to create an unusually strong out-gasing of CO2 of the terrestrial biosphere.

article

Ocean Losing Ability to Absorb CO2

U.E. Anglia, British Antarctic Survey, Planck Institute
Lead author: Corinne Le Quere
Where published: Science

...four-year study concluded that an increase in winds over the Southern Ocean is preventing it from absorbing more carbon and is causing the sea to release some of the gas that it had stored ... This is serious. All climate models predict that this kind of 'feedback' will continue and intensify during this century

article

Plants Reduce Less Carbon Dioxide

University of Minnesota
Lead author: Peter B. Reich

As fossil fuel burning continues to pump carbon dioxide (CO2) into the air, the world's land plants will be unable to absorb as much of it as had been predicted ... limitations on the availability of nitrogen, a necessary nutrient, will likely translate to limitations on the ability of plants to absorb the extra CO2.
article

Dams Emit Methane

Brazil National Institute for Space Research
Where published: Springer Netherlands
Lead author: Ivan Lima

global large dams annually release about 104 million metric tons of methane to the atmosphere through reservoir surfaces, turbines and spillways ... calculations imply that the world's 52,000 large dams contribute more than four percent of the total warming impact of human activities.

article

Arctic Ice Melting Faster Than Expected

US National Snow and Ice Data Center
Lead author: Ted Scambos
Where published: Geophysical Research Letters

The Arctic icecap is melting much faster than expected and is now about 30 years ahead of predictions made by a UN climate panel, a US ice expert says.

This means the ocean at the top of the world could be free or nearly free of summer ice by 2020, three decades sooner than the global panel's gloomiest forecast of 2050 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
...
no doubt that this is caused in large part by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
article