A new study published in the science journal Nature shows that rising greenhouse-gas levels, primarily carbon dioxide, ended the last ice age, reports Sonja van Renssen at Nature. Previously, data showed that carbon dioxide levels and temperature change were closely correlated, but not that the gas caused the warming. But by analyzing data gathered from 80 locations around the world, Jeremy Shakun, a paleoclimatologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his colleagues found that globally, warming followed CO2 increases. They used seven different records of past temperature, including ice cores, ancient pollen and the chemical composition of fossilized microscopic life. Shakun said “It’s the first hard empirical proof that CO2 was a big driver of global warming out of the ice age.” The difference between then and now is that greenhouse gases are rising thousands of times faster now. Atmospheric CO2 increased by around 100 parts per million over the course of several thousand years at the end of the last ice age. Concentrations rose by the same amount in just the past 100 years, and are projected to increase even faster in the next century.
Source
How carbon dioxide melted the world. Rising levels of carbon dioxide really did bring about the end of the most recent ice age, say researchers. By compiling a global climate record, a team has shown that regions in which concentrations of greenhouse gases increased after the warming were exceptions to the big picture. Nature http://www.nature.com/news/how-carbon-dioxide-melted-the-world-1.10393 .
The study: Global warming preceded by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations during the last deglaciation. Shakun, J. D. et al. Nature 484, 49–54 (2012). Abstract and subscription access to the actual study: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v484/n7392/full/nature10915.html
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A new study published in the science journal Nature shows that rising greenhouse-gas levels, primarily carbon dioxide, ended the last ice age, reports Sonja van Renssen at Nature. Previously, data showed that carbon dioxide levels and temperature change were closely correlated, but not that the gas caused the warming. But by analysing data gathered from 80 locations around the world, Jeremy Shakun, a palaeoclimatologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his colleagues found that globally, warming followed CO2 increases. They used seven different records of past temperature, including ice cores, ancient pollen and the chemical composition of fossilized microscopic life. Shakun said “It’s the first hard empirical proof that CO2 was a big driver of global warming out of the ice age.” The difference between then and now is that greenhouse gases are rising thousands of times faster now. Atmospheric CO2 increased by around 100 parts per million over the course of several thousand years at the end of the last ice age. Concentrations rose by the same amount in just the past 100 years, and are projected to increase even faster in the next century.
Source
How carbon dioxide melted the world. Rising levels of carbon dioxide really did bring about the end of the most recent ice age, say researchers. By compiling a global climate record, a team has shown that regions in which concentrations of greenhouse gases increased after the warming were exceptions to the big picture. Nature http://www.nature.com/news/how-carbon-dioxide-melted-the-world-1.10393 .
The study: Global warming preceded by increasing carbon dioxide concentrations during the last deglaciation. Shakun, J. D. et al. Nature 484, 49–54 (2012). Abstract and subscription access to the actual study: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v484/n7392/full/nature10915.html
