PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Warming reaches maximum 10 years after carbon dioxide emission

Warming reaches maximum 10 years after carbon dioxide emission

2014-12-03
(Press-News.org) Washington, D.C.--The climate warming caused by a single carbon emission takes only about 10 years to reach its maximum effect. This is important because it refutes the common misconception that today's emissions won't be felt for decades and that they are a problem for future generations.

For the first time, a study conducted by Carnegie's Katharine Ricke and Ken Caldeira has evaluated how long it takes to feel the maximum warming effect caused by a single carbon emission. Their work is published in Environmental Research Letters.

"A lot of climate scientists have intuition about how long it takes to feel the warming from a particular emission of carbon dioxide," Ricke said. "But that intuition might be a little bit out of sync with our best estimates from today's climate and carbon cycle models."

Many climate model simulations focus on the amount of warming caused by emissions sustained over decades or centuries, but the timing of temperature increases caused by particular emission has been largely overlooked. Ricke and Caldeira sought to correct that by combining the results from two large modeling studies one about the way carbon emissions interact with the global carbon cycle and one about the effect of carbon on the Earth's climate used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

They found that actions taken to avoid emissions today would be felt within the lifetimes of the people who acted, not just by future generations.

"CO2 emissions cause global temperatures to increase for about a decade, but then temperatures stay high for a long time," Caldeira said. "This means if we avoid an emission, we avoid heating that would otherwise occur this decade. This will benefit us and not just our grandchildren. This realization could help break the political logjam over policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

The authors note, however, that while the warming caused by a single emission reaches a maximum quickly, damage caused by this warming can play out over longer periods, including effects of sea level rise and harm to ecosystems caused by sustained warming.

INFORMATION:

The Carnegie Institution for Science (carnegiescience.edu) is a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with six research departments throughout the U.S. Since its founding in 1902, the Carnegie Institution has been a pioneering force in basic scientific research. Carnegie scientists are leaders in plant biology, developmental biology, astronomy, materials science, global ecology, and Earth and planetary science.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Growing cooperation: First the carrot, then the stick

2014-12-03
An adaptable strategy that intelligently and flexibly combines positive and negative incentives turns out to be the optimal approach for institutions to encourage the highest level of cooperation at the lowest cost, according to a new study published in the Royal Society journal Interface. "This study applies to many real-life situations, such as teachers incentivizing student efforts or governments seeking compliance with environmental regulations," says IIASA Evolution and Ecology Program Director Ulf Dieckmann, who led the study in collaboration with IIASA researchers ...

Macho stereotypes put off men as well as women

2014-12-03
Some men are being driven away from macho occupations like surgery and the Royal Marines because they don't feel that they are 'man enough', according to new research. The authors of a study published today in the British Journal of Psychology say this means that only individuals who see themselves as macho apply for and stay in such jobs, which helps explain why they remain an incredibly masculine domain. Although there is much evidence of the negative impact of gendered workplace stereotypes on women, far less attention has been paid to their effect on men. In a ...

The biology of anxious temperament may lie with a problem in an anxiety 'off switch'

2014-12-03
Philadelphia, PA, December 2, 2014 - Persistent anxiety is one of the most common and distressing symptoms compromising mental health. Most of the research on the neurobiology of anxiety has focused on the generation of increased anxiety, i.e., the processes that "turn on" anxiety. But what if the problem lay with the "off switch" instead? In other words, the dysfunction could exist in the ability to diminish anxiety once it has begun. A new report in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry by researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison suggests that deficits ...

Mediterranean diet linked to longer life

2014-12-03
The Mediterranean diet has been consistently linked with health benefits, including reduced mortality and reduced risk of chronic diseases, such as heart disease. It is characterised by a high intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes (such as peas, beans and lentils), and (mainly unrefined) grains; a high intake of olive oil but a low intake of saturated fats; a moderately high intake of fish, a low intake of dairy products, meat and poultry; and regular but moderate intake of alcohol (specifically wine with meals). Telomeres sit on the end of chromosomes (like ...

Overweight and obesity in pregnancy linked to greater risk of infant death

2014-12-03
An accompanying editorial says babies do best when mothers have a normal body weight before and during pregnancy. Women of childbearing age have a high prevalence of overweight and obesity. Previous analyses suggest that maternal obesity (body mass index (BMI) of 30 or over) is associated with increased risk of infant mortality, but results have not been consistent. So a team of researchers based in Sweden and the USA decided to test the theory that maternal overweight and obesity are associated with infant mortality by analysing over 1.8 million singleton births ...

Diagnosis targets in primary care are misleading and unethical

2014-12-03
Now come targets for six other conditions, including diabetes coronary heart disease, asthma and depression, writes Dr Martin Brunet, a GP in Surrey. "But the data on which they are based are flawed, and the approach incentivises potentially harmful overdiagnosis," he argues. Every practice in England has been told its diagnosis rate for each condition, estimated from practice data and the expected prevalence, he explains. The intention is to exert pressure on general practitioners to increase diagnosis rates, but he believes the principles behind such a policy need ...

Mediterranean diet associated with longer telomeres

2014-12-03
Boston, MA--The Mediterranean diet has been consistently linked with an array of health benefits, including decreased risk of chronic disease and cancer. Until now, no previous studies have examined whether adherence to this diet is associated with longer telomere length, a biomarker of aging. Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have found that greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with longer telomeres. These findings are published online in The BMJ on December 2, 2014. Telomeres, biomarkers of aging, are repetitive DNA sequences at ...

The Lancet: Substantial improvement in England and Wales cancer survival over 40 years

2014-12-03
Remarkable improvements in cancer survival mean that half of all people diagnosed with cancer today (2010-11) in England and Wales are expected to survive from their cancer for at least 10 years, compared to just a quarter of people diagnosed 40 years ago (1971-72), according to a new index of survival for all cancers combined*, published in The Lancet. However, although some cancers have a good prognosis, the outlook for others remains extremely poor. For example, while 98% of men with testicular cancer survive from their cancer for at least a decade after diagnosis, ...

Blows to head damage brain's 'garbage truck,' accelerate dementia

2014-12-03
A new study out today in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that traumatic brain injury can disrupt the function of the brain's waste removal system. When this occurs, toxic proteins may accumulate in the brain, setting the stage for the onset of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. "We know that traumatic brain injury early in life is a risk factor for the early development of dementia in the decades that follow," said Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., D.M.Sc., co-director of the University of Rochester Center for Translational ...

Unlike humans, monkeys aren't fooled by expensive brands

2014-12-02
A group of researchers tested whether monkeys show a common human bias: the tendency to confuse the price of a good with its quality. Previous studies have shown that humans think wine labeled with an expensive price tag tastes better than the same wine labeled with a cheaper price tag. In other studies, people thought a pain killer worked better when they paid a higher price for it. "We know that capuchin monkeys share a number of our own economic biases. Our previous work has shown that monkeys are loss averse, irrational when it comes to dealing with risk, and even ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Plant doctor: An AI system that watches over urban trees without touching a leaf

Study tracks chromium chemistry in irradiated molten salts

Scientists: the beautiful game is a silver bullet for global health

Being physically active, even just a couple of days a week, may be key to better health

High-fat diet promote breast cancer metastasis in animal models

A router for photons

Nurses and AI collaborate to save lives, reduce hospital stays

Multi-resistance in bacteria predicted by AI model

Tinker Tots: A citizen science project to explore ethical dilemmas in embryo selection

Sensing sickness

Cost to build multifamily housing in California more than twice as high as in Texas

Program takes aim at drinking, unsafe sex, and sexual assault on college campuses

Inability to pay for healthcare reaches record high in U.S.

Science ‘storytelling’ urgently needed amid climate and biodiversity crisis

KAIST Develops Retinal Therapy to Restore Lost Vision​

Adipocyte-hepatocyte signaling mechanism uncovered in endoplasmic reticulum stress response

Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid

Low LDL cholesterol levels linked to reduced risk of dementia

Thickening of the eye’s retina associated with greater risk and severity of postoperative delirium in older patients

Almost one in ten people surveyed report having been harmed by the NHS in the last three years

Enhancing light control with complex frequency excitations

New research finds novel drug target for acute myeloid leukemia, bringing hope for cancer patients

New insight into factors associated with a common disease among dogs and humans

Illuminating single atoms for sustainable propylene production

New study finds Rocky Mountain snow contamination

Study examines lactation in critically ill patients

UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West earns AIMBE’s 2025 Pierre Galletti Award

Doubling down on metasurfaces

New Cedars-Sinai study shows how specialized diet can improve gut disorders

Making moves and hitting the breaks: Owl journeys surprise researchers in western Montana

[Press-News.org] Warming reaches maximum 10 years after carbon dioxide emission
Warming reaches maximum 10 years after carbon dioxide emission