Uploaded January 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change has gone in this sixteenth edition to Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Jean Jouzel, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Jakob Schwander and Thomas Stocker "for contributions to the polar ice core records that establish a fundamental coupling between greenhouse gases and air temperature characterizing climate change over the past 800,000 years".
Dorthe Dahl-Jensen’s work has primarily focused on the reconstruction of past climate from the study of ice cores in Greenland, as reflected in her 1998 paper in the journal Science. Her research has shown that past warming episodes tended to occur during periods of increased solar energy influx, which in turn drove up CO2 and thereby temperature levels, triggering a positive feedback loop. She also found, however, that greenhouse gas concentrations at no point matched their present levels. Even in warm periods like that of 115,000 years ago, they never exceeded 3,000 parts per million (ppm) of CO2, compared to a current average of 420 ppm. Hence the scientist’s concern about the possible impacts of today’s human-induced global warming, some of which, she believes, are probably unstoppable. Further, based on her research on abrupt changes in past climate, she warns of the risk of melting ice sending torrents of fresh water into the ocean. This, in turn, would disrupt the ocean currents that give Europe its mild winters, which, paradoxically, would cool the temperature in northern European countries, Denmark and also Spain.
Discover more here: frontiersofknowledgeawards-fbbva.es/noticias/frontiers-knowledge-award-16th-edition-climate-change
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The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Climate Change has gone in this sixteenth edition to Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Jean Jouzel, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Jakob Schwander and Thomas Stocker "for contributions to the polar ice core records that establish a fundamental coupling between greenhouse gases and air temperature characterizing climate change over the past 800,000 years".
Dorthe Dahl-Jensen’s work has primarily focused on the reconstruction of past climate from the study of ice cores in Greenland, as reflected in her 1998 paper in the journal Science. Her research has shown that past warming episodes tended to occur during periods of increased solar energy influx, which in turn drove up CO2 and thereby temperature levels, triggering a positive feedback loop. She also found, however, that greenhouse gas concentrations at no point matched their present levels. Even in warm periods like that of 115,000 years ago, they never exceeded 3,000 parts per million (ppm) of CO2, compared to a current average of 420 ppm. Hence the scientist’s concern about the possible impacts of today’s human-induced global warming, some of which, she believes, are probably unstoppable. Further, based on her research on abrupt changes in past climate, she warns of the risk of melting ice sending torrents of fresh water into the ocean. This, in turn, would disrupt the ocean currents that give Europe its mild winters, which, paradoxically, would cool the temperature in northern European countries, Denmark and also Spain.
Discover more here: frontiersofknowledgeawards-fbbva.es/noticias/frontiers-knowledge-award-16th-edition-climate-change
Follow us and learn about all our initiatives:
Twitter: twitter.com/FundacionBBVA
Facebook: facebook.com/FundacionBBVA
LinkedIn: https://es.linkedin.com/company/funda...
