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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 8, NUMBER 8, AUGUST 1995

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
OF GENERAL INTEREST: TROPICAL CLIMATE CHANGE

Item #d95aug8

"Cooling of Tropical Brazil (5° C) During the Last Glacial Maximum," M. Stute (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observ., Rte. 9W, Palisades NY 10964), M. Forster et al., Science, 269(5222), 379-382, July 21, 1995.

A 30,000-year paleotemperature record derived from noble gases dissolved in C14-dated ground water indicates that the climate in lowland tropical Brazil was 5.4° C cooler during the last glacial maximum than today. The tropical Americas appear to be characterized by a temperature sensitivity comparable to that found in higher latitudes, in agreement with several other types of temperature reconstruction, but contrary to the sea-surface temperature reconstruction of CLIMAP.

Item #d95aug9

"Cooling the Tropics," W.S. Broecker (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observ., Rte. 9W, Palisades NY 10964), Nature, 376(6537), 212-213, July 20, 1995.

The recent paper by Thompson (see next entry) is the latest in a series of results showing that the tropics did cool during glacial periods, contrary to previous views. The findings send a strong warning to those who discount the continuing buildup of greenhouse gases; the paleoclimate record shows that the Earth's climate system is sensitive to even small nudges.

Item #d95aug10

"Late Glacial Stage and Holocene Tropical Ice Core Records from Huascarán, Peru," L.G. Thompson (Dept. Geolog. Sci., Ohio State Univ., Columbus OH 43210), E. Mosley-Thompson et al., Science, 269(5220), 46-50, July 7, 1995.

Two ice cores from a Peruvian glacier show that glacial conditions in the high-altitude tropics were as much as 8° to 12° C cooler than today. The atmosphere contained 200 times as much dust, and the Amazon Basin forest may have been much less extensive. A strong warming has dominated the last two centuries. (A related news item appears on p. 32 of same issue.)