See what's happening with Climate Change today! These are just a few of the articles published in various news sources recently:
Flaws in Climate Questioning Paper
The Scientist
Tuesday, Sept 6
By Jef Akst
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| Global warming predictions map WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, ROBERT A. ROHDE |
An editorial published Friday (September 2) in the journal Remote Sensing points to “fundamental methodological errors” and “false claims” in a paper that challenged current estimates of climate change, published in the same journal just 6 weeks ago.
When the paper was first published, it was touted in the media as evidence that the global warming threat may be overblown. The authors used NASA satellite data to suggest that climate models overestimate the amount of heat the atmosphere retains, and thus misjudge the warming greenhouse effect. Climate researchers weren’t convinced, however.
The paper “essentially ignored the scientific arguments of its opponents,” Wolfgang Wagner of Vienna University of Technology, the journal’s editor-in-chief, wrote in the editorial. “This…was missed in the review process, explaining why I perceive this paper to be fundamentally flawed and therefore wrongly accepted by the journal.”
“I don’t blame anybody in the publication,” Wagner told ScienceInsider, but he has decided to resign all the same. “Someone has to take responsibility. As editor-in-chief, I should be the one.”
The journal has not stated whether or not it plans to retract the paper, but Wagner hopes his resignation will signal that “Remote Sensing takes the review process very seriously.”
To read the full article visit here.
Bedrock can help the climate
Science News
Saturday, Sept 3
By Janet Raloff
With the finding that trees can pull nitrogen from rocks, scientists believe research models should consider the importance of how rocks may affect climate change. (Scott Morford/UC Davis photo) |
Researchers from the University of California, Davis offer data that could overturn the conventional wisdom about where new nitrogen in land-based ecosystems comes from. It’s supposed to come from the atmosphere. But forests and local soils underlain with nitrogen-rich sedimentary rock contain 50 percent more nitrogen, a fertilizer, than do those atop nitrogen-poor rock, the scientists report in the Sept. 1Nature. These researchers fingerprinted the bonus nitrogen to the weathering of bedrock below. Forests and soils over nitrogen-releasing rock also contained substantially more carbon than in nitrogen-poor areas, the scientists found, demonstrating that bedrock can dramatically boost the carbon-sequestering climate benefits of some forests.
To read the full article visit here.
For more details on the UC Davis research visit the UC Davis Newsroom.