Episode 134: Tracking Progress on Climate Goals

Published: June 8, 2018, 4:01 p.m.

Professor Joellen Russell’s research focuses on the ocean’s role in climate. The global oceans cover about seventy-one percent of the Earth’s surface and contain ninety-seven percent of the Earth’s water. And they play a central role in shaping the Earth’s climate. Central to this role is the ability of the ocean to store carbon dioxide and exchange it with the atmosphere as part of the global cycle. The oceans act as a carbon sink, taking up about one quarter of the world’s global carbon emissions. Under the Paris Agreement on climate change, nations have pledge to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions but uncertainties around carbon emissions will make those agreements tough to enforce. Professor Russell says the answer lies in the oceans where sensors can measure carbon in the seas. In this episode: Joellen Russell, Associate Professor, Biogeochemical Dynamics; Tim Swindle, Ph.D., Director and Head of the UA’s Lunar and Planetary Lab