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National publication features UM experts on global warming
Friday’s edition of the national journal Science features research from two University of Montana scientists who put a positive spin on global warming, saying the Earth is becoming greener and wetter.
Billings Gazette
"Most of the press you read about global warming is bad news, and I think the public has gotten accustomed to, whenever the issue comes up, they think gloom and doom," said Steve Running, one of the Montana researchers. "I think this will help lift people’s spirits."
Running and Ramakrishna Nemani studied 17 years’ worth of satellite data and weather records from around the world to determine that vegetation has increased 6 percent over extensive regions of the planet. They found tropical ecosystems showed the largest growth, with Amazon rain forests accounting for 42 percent of the world’s increase.
Reasons cited for more vegetation include warmer temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, less cloud cover and more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
"We have been working in this field almost 20 years, and this study brings together everything we have done in that time. It really is a summary of our work," said Nemani, who characterized the study as the first global look at climate changes.
The article was a collaboration with scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the University of California-San Diego, Boston University and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Despite the technical name of the article — "Climate-Driven Increases in Global Terrestrial Net Primary Production from 1982 to 1999" — the Montana researchers say it has big, and positive, implications for people outside of the laboratory.
"I come from India," Nemani said. "It was nice to see the subcontinent has done quite well in the last two decades. I wasn’t expecting that."
Running said farmers and other Montanans who make their living from the land can also take heart from the research.
"Locally, it may help us make decisions on things like how to expand agriculture in Montana," he said. "I have been watching wine regions expand in different parts of the world. There’s an active winery in British Columbia, and 20 years ago they didn’t, wouldn’t, have one. I think this research gives us a better understanding of where we should be reconsidering certain aspects of land management."
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