Researchers of a new study say that global cooling can be just as harmful as global warming after uncovering evidence that a "cool snap" that occurred 116 million years ago caused as much destruction to marine ecosystems as global warming.
For a long time now, scientists have fussed about the adverse effects of global warming and how it has affected nature and the various ecosystems of Earth. Now, a new study conducted by researchers from the universities of Newcastle, UK, Cologne, Frankfurt and GEOMAR-Kiel has found evidence that suggests global cooling can be as harmful as global warming. According to the researchers of the study, a "cool snap" that occurred 116 million years ago was responsible for a marine ecosystems crash that took place in the mid-Cretaceous greenhouse period.
According to a press release, the researchers of the study for the first time marked the duration of the amplitude and temperature changes and found that a global temperature change from 5 degrees Celsius resulted in a shift in the global carbon cycle.
"As always it's a question of fine balance and scale," said Thomas Wagner, Professor of Earth Systems Science at Newcastle University and one of the leaders of this study, in the press release.
The tectonic shifts opened up the African, South American and European ocean basins and led to the creation of additional space that became the residing space for large amounts of carbon dioxide because of marine algae. This in turn led to a drop in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide outside the oceans, which reduced the greenhouse effect and lowered global temperature.
Researchers say that this drop in global temperatures produced mass destruction of marine life. Intense volcanic activity in the Indian Ocean two million years ago led to the end of this global period.
Scientists of the study clarify that these changes took place over millions of years and hence measures should be taken immediately to curb the rapidly changing modern climate of today.
"Our results reconfirm the need for urgent and substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions if the world is to avoid exceeding the global warming target of 2 degrees needed to minimize dangerous climate change," said Dr Roger Bodman from Victoria University.
The study was published in Nature Geoscience.
