Past our peak: plants and a burgeoning problem with CO2

As plants struggle to soak up the world’s
carbon dioxide, new data suggests an amount
 equivalent to that emitted by China
 is added to the atmosphere each year.

In recent decades warmer temperatures have led to shorter winters, and in the UK the plant growing season is now a full month longer than it was in 1990.

The same is true across much of the northern hemisphere, and this extra plant growth has helped to mop up atmospheric carbon dioxide and keep a lid on global warming. But no longer.

New measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide reveal that plants have reached saturation point, and that since 2006 the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by plants has been declining. “It’s the first evidence that we are tipping over the edge, potentially towards runaway or irreversible climate change,” says James Curran, former chief executive of the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.

Read The Guardian story by Kate Ravilious - “Past our peak: plants and a burgeoning problem with CO2.”

El Niño has arrived and it's getting stronger

E

l Niño has arrived, it’s getting stronger, and it’s not about to go away soon. And already there are rumblings that this could be a big one. El Niño in Australia means warmer temperatures, and sometimes, but not always, drier conditions.

In 2014, some climatologists thought a big El Niño might have been on the cards. Ultimately, after some vigorous early warming in the Pacific, conditions only touched on El Niño thresholds.

This year, with an event already established, climatologists are suggesting the odds are rising of an El Niño rivalling the record events of 1982 and 1997.

Read The Conversation story - “Odds keep rising for a big El Niño in 2015”.