Climate Change Will Upset Vital Ocean Chemical Cycles, Research Shows

New research from the University of East Anglia shows that rising ocean temperatures will upset natural cycles of carbon dioxide, nitrogen and phosphorus. Plankton plays an important role in the ocean’s carbon cycle by removing half of all CO₂ from the atmosphere during photosynthesis and storing it deep under the sea — isolated from the atmosphere for centuries. 

Faith in facts? Climate change, spin and the Australian election

Election campaigns are strange rituals. This strangeness is most evident in promises about “the economy” – usually a code word for digging things out of the ground faster than your opponent, and shipping them to the nearest furnace or methane fridge.

In this heady rhythm of deeper, hotter, faster campaigning the wet blankets known as “fact-checking units” have been a striking feature of the 2013 campaign in Australia. These units, most notably those at the Conversation, the ABC and Politifact, claim that they “help restore faith in the political process”.

Climate change: warm words and cool waters

Last week’s report that the current “pause” in global warming could be linked to cyclic cooling in the Pacific will be interpreted by climate sceptics as evidence that global warming isn’t happening, and by politicians as a reason to forget about climate change and carry on with business as usual. Both responses would be dangerously wrong.

Fracking brings climate debate closer to home

Many of those who deny that climate change is taking place reached that position as a result of their opposition to windfarms. This, for example, was the route taken by David Bellamy, who stumbled disastrously into the debate a decade ago.

During one of our discussions, he set me the following challenge:

“Why are the so-called greens backing a cartel of multinational companies which are hell bent on covering some of the best of our countryside with so-called windfarms, which can neither provide us with a sustainable source of future energy nor have any measurable effect reducing the amount of carbon dioxide pouring into the atmosphere? If he [George Monbiot] can disprove the latter – which is the mathematical truth – I will fall into line over global warming”.