Romans, Han Dynasty were greenhouse gas emitters: study

Yahoo! News ^ | 10/3/12 | Alister Doyle | Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

OSLO (Reuters) - A 200-year period covering the heyday of both the Roman Empire and China's Han dynasty saw a big rise in greenhouse gases, according to a study that challenges the U.N. view that man-made climate change only began around 1800.

A record of the atmosphere trapped in Greenland's ice found the level of heat-trapping methane rose about 2,000 years ago and stayed at that higher level for about two centuries.

Methane was probably released during deforestation to clear land for farming and from the use of charcoal as fuel, for instance to smelt metal to make weapons, lead author Celia Sapart of Utrecht University in the Netherlands told Reuters.

"Per capita they were already emitting quite a lot in the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty," she said of the findings by an international team of scientists in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.

Rates of deforestation "show a decrease around AD 200, which is related to drastic population declines in China and Europe following the fall of the Han Dynasty and the decline of the Roman Empire," the scientists wrote.

Mankind's emissions 2,000 years ago, when the world population was an estimated 300 million, were discernible but tiny compared with current levels caused by a population of 7 billion.

Sapart estimated that methane emissions until 1800 were about 10 percent of the total for the past 2,000 years, with 90 percent since the Industrial Revolution.

Methane is generated from human sources including burning of forests and fossil fuels, rice paddies, livestock or landfills. Natural sources include wetlands, wildfires or mud volcanoes.

The findings by Sapart's team questioned the view by a U.N. panel of climate scientists that man-made climate change started with the surge in use of fossil fuels during the Industrial Revolution.

[NormsRevenge]

Obama ain’t the only one feeeling desperation ..

[NormsRevenge]

an ap / seth borenstein piece from Monday, not sure if it was posted as a thread.. but..

Study: Fraud growing in scientific research papers
http://news.yahoo.com/study-fraud-growing-scientific-research-papers-190641079.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fraud in scientific research, while still rare, is growing at a troubling pace, a new study finds.

A review of retractions in medical and biological peer-reviewed journals finds the percentage of studies withdrawn because of fraud or suspected fraud has jumped substantially since the mid-1970s. In 1976, there were fewer than 10 fraud retractions for every 1 million studies published, compared with 96 retractions per million in 2007.

The study authors aren’t quite sure why this is happening. But they and outside experts point to pressure to hit it big in science, both for funding and attention, and to what seems to be a subtle increase in deception in overall society that science may simply be mirroring.

...

[danielmryan]

And the myth just keeps on growing...

How soon before we hear that Jesus Christ was a "denier"?

[mountn man]

Damn SUVs

[Sherman Logan]

Methane levels rose a third time around the start of a cool period known as the Little Ice Age in the 1500s, perhaps also reflecting strong population growth after the plague.

Methane greenhouse gas concentrations go up, temperature comes down. Got it.

These guys really need to get their story straight.

The Roman and Han Empires between them were a rather small slice of the world. Meanwhile, over in the Americas the Indians in most of the continent(s) routinely set fire to their environment every year. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if their doing so added at least as much carbon and methane to the atmosphere as the farming in the two empires.

[ichabod1]

BEcause the cheating generation is now getting old enough to get papers published. Besides, the demise of the climatological research “industry” has to have boosted the numbers.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks NormsRevenge. Note: this topic is dated October 3, 2012. We also had another one like at the time. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.