Climate of Our Future

Carbon Dioxide Did Not End The Last Ice Age, Study Says

Science Daily — Carbon dioxide did not cause the end of the last ice age, a new study in Science suggests, contrary to past inferences from ice core records.

Lowell Stott, professor of earth sciences at

the University of Southern California, examines

a sediment core. (Credit: Dietmar Quistorf)

“There has been this continual reference to the correspondence between CO₂ and climate change as reflected in ice core records as justification for the role of CO₂ in climate change,” said USC geologist Lowell Stott, lead author of the study, slated for advance online publication Sept. 27 in Science Express.

“You can no longer argue that CO₂ alone caused the end of the ice ages.”

Deep-sea temperatures warmed about 1,300 years before the tropical surface ocean and well before the rise in atmospheric CO₂, the study found. The finding suggests the rise in greenhouse gas was likely a result of warming and may have accelerated the meltdown — but was not its main cause. Keep reading