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Thread: Thawing permafrost could unleash tons of carbon

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    Default Thawing permafrost could unleash tons of carbon

    Thawing permafrost could unleash tons of carbon
    By Deborah Zabarenko
    June 15, 2006


    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ancient roots and bones locked in long-frozen soil in Siberia are starting to thaw, and have the potential to unleash billions of tons of carbon and accelerate global warming, scientists said on Thursday.

    This vast carbon reservoir, contained in permafrost soil in northeastern Siberia, contains about 75 times more carbon than the amount released into the atmosphere each year by the burning of fossil fuels, the researchers said in a statement.

    Siberia isn't the only place on Earth with massive lodes of permafrost -- parts of Alaska, Canada and northern Europe have them too. The Siberian area is possibly the world's largest, covering nearly 400,000 square miles, with an average depth of 82 feet, and probably holds about 500 billion metric tons of carbon.

    By any measure, this is a lot, and it is in fact twice what scientists previously believed was there, ecologist Ted Schuur of the University of Florida said in a telephone interview.

    "There's a huge pool of carbon, even more than people thought before, perhaps double the amount of carbon that we thought," said Schuur, one of the article's co-authors. "If you have twice as much carbon there, essentially in the future twice as much could be released into the atmosphere."

    Cars, power plants and other fossil fuel burners release at least 6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, contributing to global warming, the scientists said.

    As the Siberian permafrost thaws, it will release the carbon contained in old grass roots and buried animal bones into the atmosphere, in what could be an unstoppable contributor to global climate change, according to the researchers.

    Earlier climate models may have failed to account for this possible component of global warming, he said.

    Schuur said this source of atmospheric carbon could create a vicious global warming cycle.

    "You have anthropogenic (human-generated) carbon that's making things a little bit warmer, and that causes the permafrost to warm up and carbon is then released from the permafrost," he said. "It goes into the atmosphere and makes things warmer yet again, so then more permafrost thaws."

    If all Siberian permafrost thawed and released its carbon in the form of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, it could nearly double the 730 billion metric tons of carbon now in the atmosphere, the scientists said.

    And like it says, that's not counting the destructiveness of all the permafrost all over the world melting, just the Siberian permafrost!
    When you are guided by compassion and loving-kindness, you are able to look deeply into the heart of reality and see the truth.--Thich Nhat Hanh

  2. #2
    sheri beri's Avatar
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    Default Re: Environmental concerns

    I will be seeing An Inconvienent truth this afternoon, and taking my son...Its the Al Gore movie about global warming......I have heard from many who have seen it that it is a 'Must see".....A very well researched and well presented movie.......

    One of the most upsetting things to me is the amount of people who say this is a myth or its nothing to worry about...
    Mother nature doesn't except excuses only man does.....

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    AR Activist Roxy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Environmental concerns

    Thanks for that article electic_one! It's very scary indeed

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    Default Re: Environmental concerns

    Quote sheri beri
    One of the most upsetting things to me is the amount of people who say this is a myth or its nothing to worry about...
    A lot of that was started by politicians. Many on "one side" have started using different language because they found that people respond differently if you use different words. So with global warming, the "other" side says "climate change." I know because my dad is on the "other" side and tries to argue that nothing we're doing has any different effect than what has been happening on the planet for thousands of years and that the idea of global warming is made-up
    When you are guided by compassion and loving-kindness, you are able to look deeply into the heart of reality and see the truth.--Thich Nhat Hanh

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