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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 1, JANUARY 1995

NEWS...

RESEARCH NEWS

Item #d95jan125

CO₂ growth rate decrease: The growth rate of global CO₂ declined abruptly from 1991 to 1992; model calculations suggest that an increase in the Northern Hemisphere sink is the cause. (See "Evidence for Interannual Variability of the Carbon Cycle from the [NOAA/CMDL] Global Air Sampling Network," T.J. Conway, P.P. Tans et al., J. Geophys. Res., 99(D11), 22,831-22,855, Nov. 20, 1994).

Item #d95jan126

Iodine and ozone depletion: A recent paper proposes that inclusion of iodine helps explain a pattern of ozone depletion that has been difficult to quantify on the basis of chlorine and bromine chemistry alone. (See Chem. Eng. News, pp. 8-9, Nov. 14 1994. And see "On the Role of Iodine in Ozone Depletion," S. Solomon, R.R. Garcia, A.R. Ravishankara, 20,491-20,499.

Item #d95jan127

Climatic instability: Model simulations show that global warming could trigger a dramatic shift in the deep ocean "conveyer belt" circulation, leading to a sudden 5·C drop in sea surface temperature in the North Atlantic, comparable to ice age conditions. The patterns predicted in the model seem consistent with recent changes observed in North Atlantic circulation, but oceanographers are divided over the significance of those observations. (See Two related items in Nature, 372(6501), Nov. 3, 1994: "Rapid Climate Transitions in a Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Model," S. Rahmstorf, 82-85; and "Conveying Past Climates," E. Boyle, A. Weaver, 41-42. And see New Scientist, pp. 20-21, Nov. 19 1994)

Item #d95jan128

OECD model available: OECD's General Equilibrium Environmental Model (GREEN), designed to analyze the effects of CO₂ emission abatement policies on global economic activity, trade, and the allocation of resources, is now available for general use. To receive a descriptive flyer contact Suzanne Edam (202-822-3865).

Item #d95jan129

ESRC research briefings: GEC-O, the quarterly newsletter of the U.K. Global Environmental Change Program, now includes four-page research Briefings. Topics included with the latest issue (Autumn 1994) are saving energy in buildings, environmental taxes, and global trends in population and food. Contact GEC Prog., c/o Environment Section, Wye Coll., Wye, Kent TN25 5AH, UK (tel: 01233-812401; fax: 01233-813187).

Item #d95jan130

Tropospheric ozone as a greenhouse gas is a growing concern, as discussed in the Sep. issue of the IGBP Global Change Newsletter (pp. 1-3). That issue also includes an insert on the International Tropospheric Ozone Years (ITOY), a proposed program to monitor ozone at a global scale over a two-year period, with emphasis on the tropics and subtropics. (A section of papers on tropospheric ozone appears in this issue of Global Climate Change Digest.)

Item #d95jan131

"Satellite Detects a Global Sea Level Rise," R. Monastersky, Science News, p. 388, Dec. 10. U.S. and French scientists reported at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union that global sea levels have risen faster in the last two years than in previous decades. However, there is no way of knowing whether this is a long-term trend or a temporary fluctuation related, for instance, to El Niño.

Item #d95jan132

"The Sunny Side of Weather: How Can Minute Changes in Solar Rays Influence Conditions on the Ground?" R. Monastersky, Science News, pp. 380-381, Dec. 3. Explains the leading theories for how the sun influences the atmosphere on time scales up to the length of the 11-year solar cycle.

Item #d95jan133

"Ice Ages: The Peat Bog Connection," F. Pearce, New Scientist, p. 18, Dec. 3. Lars Franzen of Gothenburg University in Sweden thinks that peat bogs, by absorbing so much carbon from the atmosphere, eventually cools the Earth causing ice age cycles.

Item #d95jan134

"Pumping Iron in the Pacific," K. Van Scoy, K. Coale, ibid., pp. 32-35. Full-length article by two participants of the recent experiment exploring the uptake of atmospheric CO₂ by ocean phytoplankton "fertilized" with iron. They describe its findings, and the new questions it raises that are leading to another experiment in May.

Item #d95jan135

"The Rise and Rise of Global Warming," R. Matthews, ibid., p. 6, Nov. 26. A modeling team at the U.K. Hadley Centre for climate prediction has been able, for the first time, to reproduce past fluctuations of the Earth's climate. The model simulates the radiative effect of sulfate particles, finding that it offsets about 30% of greenhouse warming. (See related paper by the Hadley group in Global Climate Change Digest, Sep 1994)

Item #d95jan136

"Rustic Site Draws a Crowd To Monitor Global Warming," R. Stone, Science, pp. 360-361, Oct. 21. Describes the wide variety of research based at Toolik Lake, Alaska, one of the 18 Long-Term Ecological Research sites supported by the National Science Foundation. Many scientists expect the Arctic to be a bellwether of any climate change.

Item #d95jan137

"Seabed Study Dates Northern Ice Age," J. Hecht, New Scientist, p. 15, Oct. 1. The spread of ice in the Northern Hemisphere began up to five million years earlier than was generally believed, according to new evidence from the Ocean Drilling Program. The age of the Greenland ice cap and the uneven growth of northern ice sheets are new puzzles for climatologists.

Item #d95jan138

"Learning from Past Climates," A.J. Broccoli, Nature, p. 282, Sep. 22. Summarizes discussions at a workshop (Silver Spring, Md., Aug. 1994) of the potential for paleoclimatic data to yield information on climate change from greenhouse gases, particularly the role to be played by important paleoclimatic data from the Soviet Union. The U.S. should fund the work needed to integrate such data into existing global archives.

Item #d95jan139

"Climate Modeling's Fudge Factor Comes under Fire," R.A. Kerr, Science, p. 1258, Sep. 9. A recent study shows that adjustment of surface fluxes of heat and moisture between the atmosphere and ocean, often made to coupled atmosphere-ocean models, may disguise but not correct model defects. (See "Destabilization of the Thermohaline Circulation by Atmospheric Eddy Transports," M. Nakamura, P.H. Stone, J. Marotzke, J. Clim., 7(12), 1870-1882, Dec. 1994.)