Our findings suggest that a variety of tipping elements could reach their critical point within this century under human-induced climate change ... The greatest threats are tipping of the Arctic sea-ice and the Greenland ice sheet, and at least five other elements could surprise us by exhibiting a nearby tipping point.
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Ice loss in Antarctica increased by 75 percent in the last 10 years due to a speed-up in the flow of its glaciers and is now nearly as great as that observed in Greenland, according to a new, comprehensive study
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The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in the 20th century increased ten times faster than at any other period in the preceding 22,000 years.
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The U.S. West will see devastating droughts as global warming reduces the amount of mountain snow and causes the snow that does fall to melt earlier in the year ... results are not good news for those living in the western United States
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Here we show that significant warming extends well beyond the Antarctic Peninsula to cover most of West Antarctica, an area of warming much larger than previously reported.
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recent warm summers have caused the most extreme Greenland ice melting in 50 years... summer 2003 was exceptionally warm around the margins of the Greenland Ice Sheet, which resulted in the second-highest meltwater running off from the Ice Sheet of the last 50 years. Summer 2005 experienced a record-high melt, which was very recently superseded in summer 2007
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Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration is expected to exceed 500 parts per million and global temperatures to rise by at least 2°C by 2050 to 2100, values that significantly exceed those of at least the past 420,000 years during which most extant marine organisms evolved.
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Under conditions expected in the 21st century, global warming and ocean acidification will compromise carbonate accretion, with corals becoming increasingly rare on reef systems
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The 2007 melt extent on the Greenland ice sheet broke the 2005 summer melt record by 10 percent, making it the largest ever recorded there since satellite measurements began in 1979
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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Methane already appears to be seeping out of once frozen bogs in Siberia.
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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.
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More water vapor -- which is itself a greenhouse gas -- amplifies the warming effect of increased atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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