carbon emissions, china, climate change, climate targets, dirty recovery, economic growth, five-year plan

China Announces New 5-Year Climate Target Amid a ‘Dirty Recovery’

The world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases announced generally moderate new energy and climate targets that give little indications that it will step up its efforts at combatting climate change over the next five years. Premier Li Keqiang, speaking at the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress, said the country will reduce carbon emissions ...

David Clapp

Industry smokestacks polluting the air.

Study Reveals Soil Is a Significant Carbon Sequestration Driver

As harmful atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to increase, understanding the planet’s carbon balance is increasingly important. A new report by U.S. National Science Foundation-funded ecologists at Arizona State University has quantified the global soil carbon sequestration by roots and the amount leached into the soil. It reveals that climate and land use are major influencers ...

Troy Oakes

Boxes with different soil types.

Ancient Carbon Unlikely to Cause Massive Greenhouse Gas Release

Permafrost in the soil and methane hydrates deep in the ocean are large reservoirs of ancient carbon. As soil and ocean temperatures rise, the reservoirs have the potential to break down, releasing enormous quantities of the potent greenhouse gas methane. But would this methane actually make it to the atmosphere? Researchers at the University of Rochester ...

Troy Oakes

A melting iceberg.

Forest Soils Release More Carbon Dioxide Than Expected in Rainy Season

Current carbon cycle models may underestimate the amount of carbon dioxide released from the soil during rainy seasons in temperate forests like those found in the northeast United States, according to Penn State researchers. Tree roots and microbes use oxygen to convert organic carbon in the soil to carbon dioxide (CO2) for energy through a ...

Troy Oakes

A road going through a forest.

How Wildfires Trap Carbon for Centuries to Millennia

Charcoal produced by wildfires could trap carbon for hundreds of years and help mitigate climate change, according to new research just published. The extensive and unprecedented outbreak of wildfires in the arctic and the vast amounts of CO2 they are emitting have been hitting the headlines across the world. But a new Nature Geoscience study ...

Troy Oakes

A forest fire.

New Paper Points to Soil Pore Structure as Key to Carbon Storage

Alexandra Kravchenko, Michigan State University professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, and several of her colleagues recently discovered a new mechanism determining how carbon storage in soils takes place that could improve the climate resilience of cropping systems and also reduce their carbon footprints. The findings, published in the scientific journal Nature ...

Troy Oakes

Mass Extinction 252 Million Years Ago: Are We Due for Another One?

About 252 million years ago, a rise in global temperatures resulted in a massive mass extinction in Earth’s history called the Permian mass extinction. Almost 96 percent of marine animals and 70 percent of land animals perished. All this happened in just a few thousand years. Scientists warn that a similar fate might await us ...

Armin Auctor

A rise in global temperatures.

News of Katla Volcano’s Immediate Eruption Is Fake

The Internet has been going wild over the past couple of days after media reported that Iceland’s Katla volcano is about to erupt, an event that would dwarf even the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. However, recent reports suggest that the news was just another case of media sensationalism. The fake news It was the British ...

Nspirement Staff