Alaska's Permafrost Is Thawing (cnbc.com)

Henry Fountain reports via The New York Times (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source): The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as other parts of the planet, and even here in sub-Arctic Alaska the rate of warming is high. Sea ice and wildlife habitat are disappearing; higher sea levels threaten coastal native villages. But to the scientists from Woods Hole Research Center who have come here to study the effects of climate change, the most urgent is the fate of permafrost, the always-frozen ground that underlies much of the state. Starting just a few feet below the surface and extending tens or even hundreds of feet down, it contains vast amounts of carbon in organic matter -- plants that took carbon dioxide from the atmosphere centuries ago, died and froze before they could decompose. Worldwide, permafrost is thought to contain about twice as much carbon as is currently in the atmosphere. Once this ancient organic material thaws, microbes convert some of it to carbon dioxide and methane, which can flow into the atmosphere and cause even more warming. Scientists have estimated that the process of permafrost thawing could contribute as much as 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit to global warming over the next several centuries, independent of what society does to reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels and other activities. In Alaska, nowhere is permafrost more vulnerable than here, 350 miles south of the Arctic Circle, in a vast, largely treeless landscape formed from sediment brought down by two of the state's biggest rivers, the Yukon and the Kuskokwim. Temperatures three feet down into the frozen ground are less than half a degree below freezing. This area could lose much of its permafrost by midcentury.

Comments

Time to plant trees

[ClickOnThis]

Time to plant trees. Lots of trees.

Re:Time to plant trees

[MightyMartian]

It has nothing to do with anything. It's just a string of sentences strung together, because pseudo-skeptics need to have some sort of response, no matter how idiotic or false the claim.

Re:Time to plant trees

[Mal-2]

Actually, we have already invented the machines we need to capture CO2. We have the machines we need, we just need to build them.

And power them. That's going to remain a sticking point unless and until we have fusion.

Re:Time to plant trees

[Gravis Zero]

And power them. That's going to remain a sticking point unless and until we have fusion.

We have plenty of power from the sun and the wind, dummy. Worst case scenario, we power them with nuclear.

Re:Time to plant trees

[religionofpeas]

It's time to start using technology to produce billions of machines that actively and permanently remove carbon from the air.

A better first step would be to turn off the machines that actively add carbon to the air.

Re:Time to plant trees

[amiga3D]

It's time to start preparing for the inevitable warming of the planet. We've got some time but I'd start by banning any new construction in Florida and other low lying areas. Even by the most optimistic view the Paris Accords aren't going to do much, if any, good. It'll keep warming gradually for decades.

Re:Time to plant trees

[Anonymous Coward]

That's like turning off the life support before the patient can breathe on their own.

Also, YOU are a machine that actively adds carbon into the air. So turn yourself off first.

Re:Time to plant trees

[drinkypoo]

It's like when I discovered the house I was renting had blackberry bushes outside. "Great!" I thought, "Free blackberries!" And when the blackberries ripened I went outside to pick them. An hour later I had a small bowl of blackberries, but I still had to wash them and my fingers were sore from numerous thorn pricks. The next day I just went to the store and bought a box of blackberries for a couple dollars. It was a much more efficient use of my time and resources to get the same end product.

When I was a kid living in Aptos, I used to go with my mother to pick blackberries along the railroad tracks. We'd get backpacks full of berries for a couple hours' work tops. Later, we moved to Capitola, and we used to pick berries in a big open field on 41st Ave, out behind the KFC. Again, backpacks full. Even at the time a small container of ripe berries was regularly $2; today it's typically around $5. Then we'd take them home and make cobblers out of them. We couldn't actually afford to go out and eat cobbler in restaurants, but we could afford to go pick fifty to a hundred dollars' worth of berries.

Maybe you're a shitty berry-picker, maybe your berry patch isn't very good, or maybe your story is just bullshit.

Every generation is phenomenally stupid...

[Anonymous Coward]

Every generation is phenomenally stupid about something that should be blindingly obvious.

The fact that we've dominated the environment to the degree we have should be obvious - we've gone from 2% of the land mammal biomass to 98% when you include our livestock.

We have evidence of multiple mass extinctions caused by exactly these same events:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I agree with the thought that some of the established concepts can have some bullshit in it - but that's exactly why we need repeatable research done and confirmed, and USED TO IMPROVE THINGS before we basically repeat history and ruin the planet for millions of years again.

The Trump move to eliminate climate research, and to silence researchers is more than the normal level of stupid.

Re:In other climate news

[serviscope_minor]

Good try, but Trump hasn't even nominated anyone for the posts I listed.

Look: you still don't get it. Trump hasn't nominated them and for the nominated ones the republicans control both houses, but it's still the democrat's fault.

Re:Like Brock Long?

[0xdeadbeef]

I love how we've gotten to the point that a "gotcha" is that the president nominated someone for a post, and that the nominee isn't incompetent.

Trump managed to not fuck something up. Take that, libtards!