Catherine M. Cooney's articles

Farmers fed up with climate change-induced heat waves, droughts and flooding may one day get to reap rewards of a unique U.S. government experiment that aims to understand how crops will adapt to even harsher conditions.

In a field in Maricopa, Arizona, about 35 miles south of Phoenix, a group of researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are simulating high temperatures anticipated to occur in 2050, using infrared heaters suspended above wheat plants.

The results of these experiments, they say, might tamp down future food crises by helping growers and ranchers manage their crops and livestock as temperatures change.

With their ability to soak up heat-trapping gases from the atmosphere, forests are front and center in international discussions about slowing climate change. But a growing chorus of researchers says the planet's trees have plenty more to offer the world beyond acting as sinks that inhale carbon.

This point was borne out by a new report presented in New York this week during the Ninth Session of United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF).

Discussions at the meeting will feed into UN talks on the formal forestry agreement taking shape, known as REDD, or Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, said Jeremy Rayner, a professor at the University of Saskatchewan Graduate School of Public Policy.

"Forest governance, although it covers most of the issues, is very complex and badly coordinated," Rayner told SolveClimate News. "And as a result, it is difficult to find a specific instrument that is forest-related, instead of forest-focused."

By "forest-focused," Rayner is referring to international pacts that narrowly focus on forests as carbon sinks. Most of the well-meaning efforts intended to protect forests, including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the global boycotts of tropical timber, ignore forests' contributions to agriculture, energy, medicine, and the livelihoods of millions of indigenous individuals, Rayner said.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, with more than 20 times greater global warming potential than carbon dioxide. Yet scientists admit that their knowledge about methane’s sources and movements through the carbon cycle is still incomplete.

Two new studies published earlier this month in the journal Science chip away at this lack of knowledge. In one study, an international team of scientists reported new data showing that freshwater sources, such as lakes and streams, contribute more methane to the atmosphere than previously thought. The other study clarified how methane is consistently cleansed from the atmosphere.

Together, they provide a clearer window on methane’s behavior in two places in the carbon cycle, improving the tool set scientists can use to track and measure the contribution of the greenhouse gas on warming global temperatures.