Gavin A. Schmidt and Drew T. Shindell.

• Localización: Scientific American, ISSN 0036-8733, Vol. 291, Nº. 6, 2004, págs. 48-48
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Focuses on the studies into ancient global warming episodes by Gavin A. Schmidt and Drew T. Shindell, of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. As researchers explore the impact of human activities on global climate, they are turning to the earth's past for valuable lessons. For a period lasting less than 100,000 years, average temperatures at the high latitudes rose by up to seven degrees Celsius. In a paper published in Paleoceanography last year, Schmidt and Shindell showed that a tremendous eruption of methane from underneath the seafloor may well have caused the intense warming. This finding has important implications for future climate change because the amount of methane in the atmosphere has doubled in the past 200 years as a result of increased rice cultivation, livestock raising, coal mining and natural gas production.