Warming could damage Arctic, release frozen waste - Reuters

Source: Reuters

Warming could damage Arctic, release frozen waste
Wed Apr 11, 2007 11:36AM EDT

OSLO (Reuters) - Global warming will damage the hunting cultures of Arctic
peoples, thaw polar ice and could release toxic wastes now trapped in
permafrost dumps, a U.N. study showed on Wednesday.

The report, giving regional details of a global study by the U.N. climate panel
issued on April 6 in Brussels, also said Arctic fish stocks and forests could be
affected by a rate of warming in the Arctic almost twice the global average.

-snip-

"The impervious nature of ice-rich permafrost has been relied upon as a design
element in landfill and contaminant holding facilities," a chapter of the report
says.

A thaw of the permafrost could bring "severe contamination" and "large cleanup
costs, even for relatively small spills," it said. The former Soviet Union dumped
waste across the Arctic.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL1135999520070411

Melting Shit-sicles.

> "The impervious nature of ice-rich permafrost has been relied upon
> as a design element in landfill and contaminant holding facilities,"

A "design element" that seems to have overlooked the possibility of
ice thawing ...?

:wtf: