Storm ?burps? release carbon dioxide
 

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The Atlantic hurricane season is over Nov. 30, and so far New Orleans has dodged any bullets, but a Texas researcher says tropical storms and hurricanes are damaging the environment even when they don?t destroy property ? and he expects it to get worse in coming years.

Michael Wetz, a marine biology professor at Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, was studying the effects of 2011?s Hurricane Irene on estuaries in North Carolina, when he and fellow researchers from the University of North Carolina and Oregon State University found that strong storms along coasts churn up sediments that normally keep carbon locked under the water, causing the release of huge belches of carbon dioxide (CO2).? [ Read more ]

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