Permafrost Melt Soon Irreversible Without Major Fossil Fuel Cuts

[defendandprotect]

Permafrost Melt Soon Irreversible Without Major Fossil Fuel Cuts


Stephen Leahy

UXBRIDGE, Canada, 17 Feb (IPS) - Thawing permafrost is threatening to overwhelm attempts to keep the planet from getting too hot for human survival.

Without major reductions in the use of fossil fuels, as much as two-thirds of the world's gigantic storehouse of frozen carbon could be released, a new study reported. That would push global temperatures several degrees higher, making large parts of the planet uninhabitable.

Once the Arctic gets warm enough, the carbon and methane emissions from thawing permafrost will kick-start a feedback that will amplify the current warming rate, says Kevin Schaefer, a scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado. That will likely be irreversible.

And we're less than 20 years from this tipping point. Schaefer prefers to use the term "starting point" for when the 13 million square kilometres of permafrost in Alaska, Canada, Siberia and parts of Europe becomes a major new source of carbon emissions.

http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=3533



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Their model projects a starting point 15/20 years from now -- !!

How often have scientists been shocked at how fast Global Warming is moving and

compounding?

[elocs]

1. The reality is that there will be no major fossil fuel cuts.

Climate change, global warming...nothing is going to stop it and nothing is really being done to prepare for its consequences.

[WinkyDink]

2. But Republicans---and their grandchildren---will be exempt from the effects.

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. This civilization is unsustainable, it's going to end badly.

[Zax2me]

4. Then we are screwed

Because we aren't changing.

[Riftaxe]

5. I always wondered how those Hoaxers managed

to bury woolly mammoth bones in the permafrost without disturbing it.