However, a new University of Minnesota study with more than 1,000 young trees has found that plants also adjust — or acclimate — to a warmer climate and may release only one - fifth as
much additional carbon dioxide than scientists previously believed, The study, published today in the journal Nature, is based on a five - year project, known as «B4Warmed,» that simulated the effects of climate change on 10 boreal and temperate tree species growing in an open - air setting in 48 plots in two forests in northern Minnesota.
Not exact matches
The Nature commentary by Penner et al. on which this argument is based actually says that on top of the global warming caused by
carbon dioxide, other short - lived pollutants (such as methane and black
carbon) cause an
additional warming approximately 65 % as
much as CO2, and other short - lived pollutants (such as aerosols) also cause some cooling.
Research indicates that oceans have absorbed
much of the heat and about a third of the
additional carbon dioxide pumped into the air from pre-industrial times.
So, if we want reasonable odds of staying below 2 °C, there's only so
much more
additional carbon dioxide we can put in the atmosphere.
As
additional CO2 is added, it tips the equilibrium between these three kinds of
carbon dioxide, so because of the Revelle Factor, it means that you can add a large amount of CO2 to the air without adding
much to the water».
The temperature effects of cloud cover during the 20th century could be as
much as 7 times greater than the alleged temperature effect of 200 years worth of
additional carbon dioxide and several times greater than that of all
additional greenhouse gases combined.