Search Results for: ocean acidification

UNEP hands world homework for Earth Summit 2012

Among green geopolitical milestones there are a few true megaliths. Probably one can count in the world assemblees in Copenhagen and Kyoto, but the real foundations for international environmental cooperation were laid decades before.

Coral is losing its chemical war with seaweeds

As if anthropogenic pollution and overfishing isn’t damaging enough for coral reefs worldwide, now certain seaweeds seem determined to see the end of reefs as well. These macroalgae produce chemicals that inhibit the growth of reef-building coral or even kill … Continue reading →

Reefs took 1.5 million years to reappear after Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction

The Permian-Triassic Mass Extinction was the largest in our planet’s history. Enormous disruptions of the carbon cycle led to climate change, ocean acidification and ocean anoxia – and with an estimated 90 percent of all species dying out Earth almost … Continue reading →

Early warning system for coral reef collapse found

Global warming, overfishing and ocean acidification form a major threat to ocean ecosystems, possibly even leading to an oceanic Holocene mass extinction. We might even have to say goodbye to the planet’s last coral reef by 2050 if we’re not … Continue reading →

Threefold increase of dust led to -40 ppm CO2 Antarctic iron fertilisation during Pleistocene

An international team of researchers today in Nature explain the importance of dust storms for climate variability, not just for the radiative balance, but also for the Earth’s carbon cycle. For geoengineering minds: iron fertilisation at least seems to have … Continue reading →

Nature: climate change leads to 67-84 percent intraspecific biodiversity loss by 2080 – Holocene Mass Extinction within this century

The better we define the richness of life on Earth, the larger the percentage we are going to lose becomes. Life won’t go extinct. The number of domains and kingdoms will very-very likely remain the same. But as we go … Continue reading →

Soils don´t need warming to add another positive climate feedback

We recently reported on a possible negative carbon feedback of forest soils in higher latitudes: when such soils warm, nutrient availability may increase, as would (therefore) biomass production and CO2 uptake. But not all climate feedbacks operate through temperature. It … Continue reading →

Does cyclone modification geoengineering make sense?

Is what a group of engineering policy researchers and atmospheric scientists from Carnegie Mellon and MIT asked themselves. Considering increasing hurricane damage around the Gulf of Mexico – and technological options – they get to a ‘maybe’.