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New evidence found for carbon dioxide's role as a major trigger of global climate change

02 Dec 2011

In a paper to be published online in the journal "Science"on December 2 (Friday) Hong Kong time, new findings will be presented to provide further evidence of atmospheric carbon dioxide's role as a major trigger of global climate change.

Dr Liu Zhonghui, of the Department of Earth Sciences of the University of Hong Kong, is an author of the paper released by the Yale University-led research team. Other authors include scientists from universities in US, Britain, Sweden and Australia.

Collectively, the team found that carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere plunged prior to and during the initial icing of Antarctica, about 34 million years ago. The available evidence supports a fall in CO2 as a critical condition for global cooling and cryosphere evolution at that time.

Dr Liu Zhonghui can be reached at 2859 2831, or email zhliu@hku.hk for interview and for details of the research。

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