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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 5, NUMBER 8, AUGUST 1992

NEWS...
RESEARCH NEWS

Item #d92aug121

CO₂ uptake by trees: Contrary to hopes that rising CO₂ levels would be compensated by increased growth of forests, experiments show that trees that are not fertilized or irrigated do not increase carbon storage under elevated CO₂. (See Norby paper, Nature, p. 322, May 28, 1992, in Prof. Pubs./Gen. Int.--Sci., this issue--Aug. 1992; also New York Times, p. C4, June 2.)

Item #d92aug122

Pinatubo cooling detected: At an American Geophysical Union press conference, NASA climatologist James Hansen said that the 0.4° C global atmospheric cooling observed by satellite as of April is close to climate model predictions of the effect of dust from Mount Pinatubo (Science, p. 1276, May 29, 1992). A July 3 press release from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that this cooling results from a 20-30 percent decrease in direct solar radiation reaching the ground.

Item #d92aug123

CO₂ disposal: Norwegian researchers have concluded that it may be possible to sequester CO₂ from power stations in the deep ocean, even if it is injected at relatively shallow depths near coastlines. (See Haugen and Drange, Nature, p. 318, May 28, 1992, in Prof. Pub./Emissions & Control, this issue--Aug. 1992.) In the same Nature issue (pp. 283-284), James C. Orr of Princeton University comments on these findings, and concludes that ocean injection of CO₂ should only complement a strategy founded on energy conservation and resource management.

Item #d92aug124

Middle atmosphere cooling: New results showing a trend in the height of a thin layer of sodium vapor 90 km above the Earth's surface add to other evidence of possible global change at this level. See paper by Clemesha et al. and comment by Garcia (Nature, May 7, 1992) in Prof. Pubs./Trend Analysis, this issue--Aug. 1992.

Item #d92aug125

Dissolved organic carbon: In 1988 Sugimura and Suzuki claimed the existence of a major new pool of biospheric carbon based on a new technique for measuring dissolved organic carbon in the ocean. Several recent papers give conflicting views on their conclusions. (See Prof. Pub./Marine Biogeochem., this issue--Aug. 1992.)

Item #d92aug126

"Researchers Look beyond UNCED," I. Mundell, Nature, p. 269, May 28. Environmental researchers comment on the relationship of their work to preparations for the Earth Summit and subsequent activities, and recommend that the U.N. set up an office on future scientific work.