Ticking Arctic Carbon Bomb May Be Bigger Than Expected

sciencehabit writes "Scientists are expressing fresh concerns about the carbon locked in the Arctic's vast expanse of frozen soil. New field studies quantify the amount of soil carbon at 1.9 trillion metric tons, suggesting that previous estimates underestimated the climate risk if this carbon is liberated. Meanwhile, a new analysis of laboratory experiments that simulate carbon release by thawed soil is bolstering worries that continued carbon emissions could unleash a massive Arctic carbon wallop."

Comments

Re:I'm ready...

[DarkOx]

My problem with the entire AGW issue is that people don't seem to look at it from the economic perspective. The costs of cutting emissions enough to make even a little difference is huge, and not enough to save us. Even without the thawing methane issue many of the models say we are on course for a 4+ degree rise, and doing enough to slow that by 2 degrees could consume almost our entire GDP! Meanwhile the models also indicate the geo-polictical situation as we know it won't tolerate more than 2 degrees. Finally add in feedback issues like this one and the evidence we might have already crossed the tipping point where even if we became carbon neutral today we are still doomed!

So it seems to me curbing emissions is a waste of resources that should be either going into savings (private and public) so we can afford to implement an actual solution when one becomes apparent or to R&D of said solution.

Maybe that is carbon scrubber large enough and cheap enough to lower the carbon content in the atmosphere. Once we have something like that we would know the unit cost of removing carbon, and could target emissions goals based on cut emissions until the costs of reduction per unit exceeds operating the scrubber.

Perhaps its some other geo-engineering solution; there are benefits to higher atmospheric carbon for agriculture, perhaps if we can control temperatures another way the CO2 might not even be such a problem (yes I am aware there are acidity issues with the ocean etc that complicate things as well).

As it stands right now the situation looks like this to me:

Guy goes to the doctor

Doctor: Well your heart is failing and you have two years to live
Guy: Is there anything we can do?
Doctor: I could amputate your legs, it will lower you body mass and make things easier for your heart.
Guy: That sounds awful; but it will save me right?
Doctor (chuckles): Oh my no, your heart is already way to damaged, it will be incredibly painful come with its own complications and probably only extend your life a couple weeks. Shall I get my hack saw?
Guy: ....