Thawing permafrost could unleash tons of carbon

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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060615/ts_nm/environment_permafrost_dc

If it's already melting, we don't have much time- if any- to fix it.

Cognizant scientists tell us the same thing.

http://www.unep.org/Documents.multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=192&ArticleID=2763

From the United Nations Environmental Programme

Melting Permafrost may accelerate Global Warming, UNEP Scientists Warn

Nairobi, 7 February 2001 - Global warming may be set to accelerate as rising temperatures in the Arctic melt the permafrost causing it to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, scientists warned today (WED). An estimated 14 per cent of the world's carbon is stored in Arctic lands.

But there is new and emerging evidence that this ancient carbon, locked away in these frozen lands, is starting to be released as rising temperatures cause the permafrost to melt and its organic material to be broken down by bacteria.


Svein Tveitdal, managing director of GRID Arendal in Norway, a UNEP environmental information centre monitoring the melting of the permafrost, told a meeting at the 21st session of the United Nations's Governing Council in Nairobi, Kenya today: "Permafrost has acted as a carbon sink, locking away carbon and other greenhouse gases like methane, for thousands of year. But there is now evidence that this is no longer the case, and the permafrost in some areas is starting to give back its carbon. This could accelerate the greenhouse effect".


He said there were already impacts on roads, buildings, pipelines and other infrastructure occurring in Arctic areas like Alaska and Siberia as result of the recent decades of climate change. Permafrost, which is a solid structure of frozen soil, can be an ideal terrain on which to build.


But rising temperatures can turn it into a soft, slurry-like, material which can trigger subsidence and damage to buildings and structures.


Studies by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks indicate that a change in permafrost temperature of minus four degrees Centigrade to minus one degree Centigrade decreases the load capacity of permafrost by as much as 70 per cent. In some parts of Siberia homes and buildings are already suffering as a result with cracks and other fractures appearing.


Dr Tveitdal, whose organisation is UNEP's key Arctic centre, said it was urgent for governments to act to reduce the threat of climate change on the Arctic.


He said it was important for nations to implement the targets of a five per cent cut back in greenhouse gases, agreed to in Kyoto in 1997, as a first step.


"The political response at the moment is far slower than the estimated rate of climate change this century. Even with the Kyoto targets, we are far away from reducing emissions by the 60 per cent to 70 per cent researchers suggest is necessary to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere," said Dr Tveitdal.


He said the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had added new urgency. The IPCC's scientists now estimate that temperatures this century may rise by up to 5.8 degrees C.


"In some areas like the Arctic you might have up to 10 degrees C this century, " he said.


UNEP believe that it is inevitable that countries in the Arctic will have to therefore adapt to the impacts of global warming. Crucial to this will be good monitoring of the way the permafrost is responding to rising temperatures.


GRID Arendal have produced interactive maps, illustrating the current extent of permafrost in blue, which will act as a baseline from which scientists and policy makers can track the melting and shrinking of the Arctic's frozen soils.


"I do not think it is radical to say that the map will become progressively less blue in the coming years," said Dr Tveitdal.


The threat of climate change to the Arctic and its permafrost will take centre stage at the Arctic Council meeting of ministers taking place in Finland in June. Klaus Toepfer, UNEP Executive Director is expected to attend this crucial event.


UNEP scientists fear the melting of the permafrost and the disruption caused may also have important impacts on the wildlife, such as the reindeer, and the traditional lifestyle indigenous people living there.


An estimated 200,000 indigenous people, drawn from 30 ethnic groups, are represented in Arctic Russia alone.

of possibly many, that collectively, could create a massive acceleration in the process of global climate change that Carl Sagan termed the "cascade effect".

Who knows what lies in the future for human civilization? One thing is virtually assured: the status quo will come to an end, and possibly sooner than we realize.

Here is some information on this topic:

Most of the ground in arctic regions remains below 0 oC throughout the year. This permanently "frozen" ground is called permafrost. Most free water within permafrost it frozen. Above permafrost, near the ground surface, is a layer that freezes and thaws every year, as air temperatures change with the seasons. This layer is called the active layer. As annual air temperatures rise above 0 oC, this active layer becomes thicker. By becoming thicker, it is also melting ground that was once frozen. The melting of this previously frozen ground causes settling, and instabilities on hill slopes. In many areas this thickening of the active layer (only cm's in most cases), combines with other factors, to cause large-scale failures called thaw slumps, seen in many arctic areas along coastal shorelines and riverbanks. This type of manifestation of climate warming is causing some coastlines along the Beaufort Sea to retreat at rates of up to 10 m per year. The thawing of frozen ground will have unknown effects on wetlands, which store and produce a quarter of the world's carbon, in the form of methane and carbon dioxide. Changes in wetland characteristics have the potential to cause an increase in the natural release of these greenhouse gases.
<http://www.snowchange.org/snowchange/content/view/23/2/>

As the permafrost goes, so go the glaciers as well. That's bad, too; ice reflects light back into space, and if there's less light going into space because there's less ice, then more heat is absorbed by the Earth. This causes still more ice to melt, which causes less light to reflect, and so on.

...you probably haven't heard of the other bunch of carbon (methane) stored under the ocean that will release as temperatures rise. Or ocean acidification. Have a drink from the firehose:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/1/201639/4784
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/3/193919/1786

...in Steps to an Ecology of Mind, back in 1972, that we are a species already past the point of no return, an opinion he cites shared by more than a few respectable scientists at the time. The reason was that our technical prowess, and thus our ability to wreak havoc on the environment, far outstripped our culture and social behavior. There was, then, little consciousness and thus motivation to press down a bit on the consumerist-techno brakes to slow man-induced negative environmental change.

In a sense we're blooming bacteria confined to an exhausted petri dish, on the brink of massive die-off. In geological/evolutionary time, of course, not in the next year or two (well, as long as Bush doesn't press the 'nucular' button).

"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."

uh... that's bad, isn't it?

CO2 is life! Trees breath it! :sarcasm:

10 miles high.

:cry:

Solves global warming, with other technologies. My diary is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1436151

which will come out over a shorter span probably within a decade.

This is not good.

Countdown to Armageddon? They were talking about the gargantuan amounts of methane gas that would be released if the oceans warmed up a couple of degrees more. Something equivalent to all the greenhouse gases spewed in the past 800,000+ years. They were talking about the ENTIRE planet becoming a dust bowl in about 10 years. Scary stuff.

insurance.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006
SCI FI PREMIERES 'COUNTDOWN TO DOOMSDAY' HOSTED BY MATT LAUER
Released by Sci Fi


SCI FI PREMIERES 'COUNTDOWN TO DOOMSDAY' HOSTED BY MATT LAUER

Featuring Former Vice President Al Gore Warning of an Impending Global Armageddon

NEW YORK, NY June 12, 2006 SCI FI Channel's two-hour 'Declassified' special 'Countdown to Doomsday,' hosted by 'Today's Matt Lauer and produced in partnership with NBC News Productions, will premiere June 14 @ 9 PM on SCI FI. Former Vice President Al Gore joins leading scientific experts who warn of potentially imminent scenarios that could occur at any time, even within our own lifetime. The experts also reveal the shocking reality behind our level of preparedness.

'Countdown to Doomsday' provides a chilling look at ten scenarios threatening to induce our planet's next mass extinction, and also how these catastrophes can be averted. Using special effects to illustrate the knowledge and imagination of the world's leading scientists, viewers will experience the magnitude of each catastrophe as SCI FI brings the ten shocking scenarios to life. In addition to the heart pounding "what ifs," potential solutions will be also be explored. Shot around the globe, 'Countdown' will reveal the potential consequences of ominous terrestrial threats like global warming, asteroid collisions and pandemic outbreaks. Former President Al Gore speaks out about the dangers of global warming, urging quick action before we reach the point of no return.

NBC News Productions is an in-house production unit serving NBC News, NBC's Entertainment Division and all of NBC-owned cable channels.

SCI FI Channel is a television network where "what if" is what's on. SCI FI fuels the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies and classic science fiction and fantasy programming, as well as a dynamic Web site www.scifi.com and magazine. Launched in 1992, and currently in 85 million homes, SCI FI Channel is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies.



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What can I say, the mind is the first thing to go....

.

:)

Why not get a jump on the land prices? They're not making any more of it (land that is).

I feel so hopeless about this. No matter how much bike riding, recycling, environment preserving things I do....it just doesn´t matter. Not to be a downer, but global warming is one of my biggest fears in life.

Scientists have recognized for years the cliff our species is rushing towards headlong. If you want to read some scary stuff -- the future we have selfishly designed for this planet -- read these:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/dayearthdied.shtml
http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=582
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/08/030828071722.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/ps-gwl020905.php
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0009/feature4/fulltext.html

Man, I wish the UN and the Media would report more of this stuff. If we are to survive, we need to take action now.