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Science 24 April 2009:
Vol. 324. no. 5926, pp. 477 - 478
DOI: 10.1126/science.1172001
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Perspectives

Atmospheric Science:

Shifting Gear, Quickly

E. G. Nisbet1 and J. Chappellaz2

Earth's climate can change gear very quickly, either sharply warming or fiercely cooling (1). Past shifts of this kind were massive, and some took place within a few years (2). About 11,600 years ago, at the end of the Younger Dryas cold period, the planet warmed very suddenly, with strong increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases, especially methane. On page 506 of this issue, Petrenko et al. use radiocarbon (14C) data to identify the sources of the additional methane (3).

1 Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham TW20 0EX, UK.
2 Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l'Environnement, CNRS, University of Grenoble, BP 96, 38402 St. Martin d'Hères, France.

E-mail: e.nisbet{at}es.rhul.ac.uk; chappellaz{at}lgge.obs.ujf-grenoble.fr

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)