What Is Climate Change? How climate change raises the risk of glacier and rock collapse Climate change means abrupt shifts in temperature and weather. Some of these shifts occur naturally, while others result from human activities such as burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Burning fossil fuels produces greenhouse emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun's heat and raising temperatures. The main greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, cause climate change. Clearing land and deforestation can also release CO2. Agriculture, oil and gas are the primary sources of methane emissions. These are a few of the main sources of greenhouse gases. We face a huge challenge, but we have many solutions. Climate change can be reduced by eliminating CO2 from the atmosphere, which requires systemic changes. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates that countries must double their pledges under the Paris Agreement within the next dec...
Plants Absorb 31% More Carbon Than Previously Thought, Prompting Updates to Climate Modeling A recent study has revealed that plants worldwide are absorbing significantly more carbon dioxide (CO2) than scientists had estimated before. The research shows that terrestrial plants absorb about 31% more CO2 than earlier calculations suggested. These findings are expected to enhance Earth system models used to predict climate changes and emphasize the crucial role of natural carbon sequestration in reducing greenhouse gas levels. Plant CO2 uptake predictions Terrestrial Gross Primary Production, or GPP, is the quantity of carbon dioxide that plants extract from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. This process, which is commonly estimated in petagrams of carbon per year (one pentagram is equivalent to one billion metric tons), is the biggest transfer of carbon between the atmosphere and the land. GPP was previously believed by scientists to be about 120 pentagram annually, a figure...