COSEE Ocean Systems: News
Formation of most of our coal brought Earth close to global glaciation
Description: The bulk of the coal driving the Industrial Revolution and contributing to global warming today has been deposited during the Carboniferous period (359-299 million years ago), resulting in a significant drawdown of atmospheric carbon dioxide at that time. In this work, a combination of climate model simulations and recent estimates for carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are used to demonstrate that the cooling due to the diminished greenhouse effect brought our planet close to the limit of global glaciation ∼300 million years ago. These findings highlight the climatic importance of the fossil carbon stored in Earth's coal deposits and thus have implications for climate policy. [Sources: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America]
URL: http://www.pnas.org/content/114/43/11333
Availability: Summary
Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publish Date: 10/1/2017
Reading Level: Expert
Page Length:  

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