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CO2

Climate Change: Greenland’s Dark Zone; Covid CO2 Drop Over; Company Pledges and More

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climate change - deposit photos

Mystery of Greenland’s expanding ‘dark zone’ finally solvedhttps://www.livescience.com/greenland-dark-zone-mystery-solved.htmlThe mystery of a growing “dark zone” on Greenland’s melting ice sheet has been solved. Researchers have found that phosphorus-rich dust blown across the ice may be the key to the phenomenon. Greenland’s ice sheet is the second largest in the world. It covers around 656,000 square miles (1.71 million square kilometers), an area three times the size of Texas, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC). However, the ice sheet is now in a state of permanent retreat and is losing 500 gigatons (500 billion tons) of ice every … Read more

Pulling Carbon Out of the Atmosphere

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Carbon Dioxide CO2 - pixabay

Nature has equipped Earth with several giant “sponges,” or carbon sinks, that can help humans battle climate change. These natural sponges, as well as human-made ones, can sop up carbon, effectively removing it from the atmosphere. But what does this sci-fi-like act really entail? And how much will it actually take — and cost — to make a difference and slow climate change? Sabine Fuss has been looking for these answers for the last two years. An economist in Berlin, Fuss leads a research group at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change and was part of … Read more

SCIENCE: Naked Mole Rats, CO2, and Seizures

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naked mole rat - deposit photos

Naked mole rats are supremely weird creatures — they don’t need much oxygen, and instead have seizures if they don’t get enough carbon dioxide, the chemical humans exhale when we breathe, researchers just found.The scientists found that the wrinkled rodents will even seek out areas that have been infused with the gas. But why? Turns out, due to a genetic mutation, naked mole rats lack an important switch in their brains that helps to tamp down electrical activity in the organ, and thus, prevent seizures, according to a new study published today (April 30) in the journal Current Biology. This … Read more

CO2 reaches Levels Last Seen Before Humankind Evolved

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pollution - Live Science

There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than there has been for 800,000 years — since before our species evolved. On Saturday (May 11), the levels of the greenhouse gas reached 415 parts per million (ppm), as measured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Scientists at the observatory have been measuring atmospheric carbon dioxide levels since 1958. But because of other kinds of analysis, such as those done on ancient air bubbles trapped in ice cores, they have data on levels reaching back 800,000 years. During the ice ages, carbon dioxide levels in … Read more