NYT: Centuries of global warming projected

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/246742_warm02.html?dpfrom=thead

Centuries of global warming projected

By ANDREW C. REVKIN
THE NEW YORK TIMES

If emissions of heat-trapping gases keep accumulating in the atmosphere at the current rate, there may be many centuries of warming and a near-total loss of Arctic tundra, a new climate study warns.

Overall, the world would experience profound transformations, some potentially beneficial but many disruptive, and all at a pace rarely seen in nature, said the authors of the study, published today in The Journal of Climate.

"The question is no longer whether we will need to address this problem, but when we will need to address the problem," said Kenneth Caldeira, an author of the study and a climate expert at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, based at Stanford University.

"We can either address it now, before we severely and irreversibly damage our climate, or we can wait until irreversible damage manifests itself strongly," Caldeira said. "If all we do is try to adapt, things will get worse and worse."

more

Like when the human race is obliterated, there'll be more parking?

for one.

might turn Siberia into the Golden Cropland Of The Future. Of course, given what will probably happen to much of the rest of the world if that happens, I'm not sure how many people would be left to enjoy the products of said region.

EUROPE’S vanishing glaciers and melting permafrost in Siberia prompted scientists to raise new fears over global warming yesterday.
The dual concerns came as a high-altitude Alpine ski run closed yesterday for the first time because of a lack of snow.

Tour operators at Val Senales in Alto Adige, near Italy’s border with Austria, said that the run had never before had to close since it opened 30 years ago. High-altitude ski runs have also been closed in the Tonale Pass and at Marmolada, in the Dolomites. Walter Maggi, a geologist at Milan University, said that the closures had come after low rainfall in the spring and very high temperatures in June and July. “But there are deeper causes. The finger of suspicion points at global warming,” he said.

Scientists in Russia are more concerned about the thawing of vast tracts of permafrost in western Siberia. The melting permafrost peat bog across an area the size of France and Germany threatens to unleash vast amounts of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, scientists from Tomsk State University in western Siberia and Oxford University said. The huge frozen region, covering a million square kilometres of western Siberia, is rapidly turning into a watery landscape of shallow lakes. Experts fear that it could release billions of tonnes of methane trapped in the frozen peat.

In Italy, Signor Maggi estimated that Italy had lost 40 per cent of its glaciers since 1850, with a notable acceleration in the past three years. Glaciologists have noted the disappearance of glaciers across the Alps. The resulting fall in river levels has raised concern that water supplies to urban areas may be affected. Authorities in Lombardy yesterday warned hikers to avoid a glacier on Mount Ortles, from which a chunk of ice 52m high could break off. Three years ago the Belvedere glacier in the Alps formed an ice lake that threatened to flood the resort of Macugnaga. Engineers drained the lake while 700 inhabitants were moved to safety.

EDIT

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1730079,00.ht...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=115&topic_id=28710

It's worth noting that this much methane - about 80 billion tons - is equivalent to roughly 2 trillion tons of CO2, since methane is between 24 and 25 times as effective in trapping infrared radiation as carbon dioxide.

It's 80 degrees in DENVER,CO on NOVEMBER!ST!!!:sarcasm:

That's a bit unusual.

Really? You had snow? Interesting.

I live in central Missori and it seems like a lot of people are saying that Fall is very late in coming here this year. Usually by this time all the trees are well into their color change or loss of foliage, but many are still green and full. Even fairly young people I know here (like my age, 45) say the weather is very different from when they were kids.

Fine for natural gas bills, weird otherwise.

Should be a dead, bad, meme.

It's warming *and* cooling. It's about Climate Change, not warmth. Otherwise, every record-setting cold event will be posited as a "Hah hah, environmentalists were wrong" event.