General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIs a Sleeping Climate Giant Stirring in the Arctic?
Over hundreds of millennia, Arctic permafrost soils have accumulated vast stores of organic carbon - an estimated 1,400 to 1,850 petagrams of it (a petagram is 2.2 trillion pounds, or 1 billion metric tons). That's about half of all the estimated organic carbon stored in Earth's soils. In comparison, about 350 petagrams of carbon have been emitted from all fossil-fuel combustion and human activities since 1850. Most of this carbon is located in thaw-vulnerable topsoils within 10 feet (3 meters) of the surface.
But, as scientists are learning, permafrost - and its stored carbon - may not be as permanent as its name implies. And that has them concerned.
"Permafrost soils are warming even faster than Arctic air temperatures - as much as 2.7 to 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 to 2.5 degrees Celsius) in just the past 30 years," Miller said. "As heat from Earth's surface penetrates into permafrost, it threatens to mobilize these organic carbon reservoirs and release them into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, upsetting the Arctic's carbon balance and greatly exacerbating global warming."
The distinction is critical. Molecule per molecule, methane is 22 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide on a 100-year timescale, and 105 times more potent on a 20-year timescale. If just one percent of the permafrost carbon released over a short time period is methane, it will have the same greenhouse impact as the 99 percent that is released as carbon dioxide.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/earth20130610.html#.UfCwJ43vu3W
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)Sorry to break it to you, but there's just no real evidence to suggest that the "monster" is really stirring.
With that said, however, it certainly wouldn't hurt to continue monitoring the Arctic, though.
peoli
(3,111 posts)Maybe you should voice your concerns to NASA because I am bored of talking with nonbelievers. You can believe whatever you want.
Here is their info:
Alan Buis
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-0474
Alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov
peoli
(3,111 posts)...as if you are somehow more aware than I am about science, the environment, ecosystems or anything. Please do not speak to me like I am a child.
bahrbearian
(13,466 posts)City Lights
(25,171 posts)morningfog
(18,115 posts)NickB79
(19,258 posts)Because the past 30 years and literally thousands of peer-reviewed articles JUST aren't quite enough, you see.
In the meantime: http://www.livescience.com/38347-north-pole-ice-melt-lake.html
Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)You might want to hang around me a bit more. Maybe you should take a look at the environment-related stuff I've recced over the years.
morningfog
(18,115 posts)stories now.
Squinch
(50,992 posts)CreekDog
(46,192 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)And you never provide a shred of actual evidence when you accuse me of such. *Tsk, tsk*, you'd think you would finally have gotten the hint somewhere, that maybe, just maybe, you were wrong about me(if you were willing to broaden your scope, you'd find that out pretty quickly).
Zoeisright
(8,339 posts)When the permafrost goes, all bets are off. Even the ignorant deniers will have to face this.
AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)tavalon
(27,985 posts)is that that is the no turning back point. Deny or not, we will all die.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)olddots
(10,237 posts)and believe in superstition instead of science
City Lights
(25,171 posts)And they're fucking it up for the rest of us.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)Junkdrawer
(27,993 posts)Delphinus
(11,840 posts)Thanks for sharing.
Egalitarian Thug
(12,448 posts)and we get to see them start while surrounded by ignorant jackasses telling themselves, and anybody that will listen, that it's not as bad as it looks.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)I'm not afraid of the things that most people are.
This, though, scares me badly enough that I can't read it head on, all at once. I've glanced at it, picked up a bit, glanced away to something else...come back, and finally finished the whole article.
Which offers no comforting solution.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)There isn't a "solution." Last year was the first big blast past the tipping point. It's running on its own power now.
As George Carlin said, "Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are fucked. Difference."
We got complacent- we started chasing mythical greatness instead of looking for sustainable ways to stay in balance with the Earth. Easter Island goes global.
Squinch
(50,992 posts)implementation of it.
Even in this thread, there's someone denying and stonewalling.
It seems hopeless.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)datasuspect
(26,591 posts)i hope he will answer my prayers!
ananda
(28,873 posts)Am I an alarmist?
I don't think so.
glinda
(14,807 posts)are we going to get past all of this and do something. It is really too late so science better come up with a way to almost reverse it at this point.
I am getting hugely f'in depressed. No offense to poster.....
Permafrost acts like a chain reaction. Once it starts it does not stop.
peoli
(3,111 posts)I know this is not new info, but it is always new to someone and needs to be constantly put out there.