Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Palaeoclimate

Atmospheric carbon footprints?

Nature Geoscience volume 2, pages 170–172 (2009)Cite this article

According to one controversial idea, increases in atmospheric greenhouse-gas concentrations due to human activities can be detected as early as several thousand years ago. Eight years after the publication of this hypothesis, controversy continues.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Debated human footprint5.

References

  1. MacFarling Meure, C. et al. Geophys. Res. Lett. 33, L14810 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Ruddiman, W. F. & Thomson, J. S. Quat. Sci. Rev. 20, 1769–1777 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Ruddiman, W. F. Rev. Geophys. 45, RG4001 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Chappellaz, J. et al. J. Geophys. Res. 102, 15987–15997 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm08/fm08-sessions/fm08_U33B.html

  6. Schmidt, G., Shindell, D. & Harder. S. Geophys. Res. Lett. 31, L23206 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Broecker, W. S. & Stocker, T. Eos Trans. AGU 87, 10.1029/2006EO030002 (2006).

  8. Olofsson, J. & Hickler, T. Veg. Hist. Archaeobot. 17, 605–615 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Marlon, J. R. et al. Nature Geosci. 1, 697–702 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Flückiger, J. et al. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 16, 10.1029/2001GB001417 (2002).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Edward J. Brook is at the Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97330, USA. brooke@geo.oregonstate.edu,

    Edward J. Brook

Authors
  1. Edward J. Brook
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Brook, E. Atmospheric carbon footprints?. Nature Geosci 2, 170–172 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo446

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo446

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing