Global Warming

Scientists focus on methane, permafrost in fight against global warming
The State Column | Staff | Monday, December 19, 2011

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A study released earlier this month finds that melting permafrost is likely to increase the effects of global warming, prompting scientists to travel north in an effort to determine what effect increasing permafrost melt will have on the environment.

With amounts of greenhouse gases trapped below thawing permafrost will likely seep into the air over the next several decades, accelerating and amplifying global warming, the New York times reports that scientists are now flocking to the Arctic in an effort to understand what, exactly, the impact of increased rates of melting permafrost will have.

“Now, as people burn immense amounts of carbon in the form of fossil fuels, the planet’s temperature is rising, and the Arctic is warming twice as fast. That, scientists say, puts the remaining permafrost deposits at risk,” the Times noted in a piece published Sunday.

Arctic warming of 13.5 degrees Fahrenheit this century may unlock the equivalent of 380 billion tons of carbon dioxide as soils thaw, allowing carbon to escape as CO2 and methane, University of Florida and University of Alaska write in the latest issue of Nature.

Meanwhile, scientists now estimate the frozen north contains twice as much carbon as the entire atmosphere. With temperatures rising in the region, researchers are trying to determine how much of the trapped carbon is being released and what the impact will be on global warming. The research team’s observations showed that the permafrost is perforated and leaking large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. More than 80 percent of the deep water and more than half of surface water had methane levels around eight times higher than found in normal seawater, according to the study published in the journal Science. The researchers warned that the release of even a fraction of the methane stored in the shelf could trigger abrupt climate warming.

Scientists predict that upwards of 45 billion metric tons of carbon from methane and carbon dioxide will seep into the atmosphere when permafrost thaws during coming summers over the course of thirty years. The prediction is equal to the amount of heat-trapping gas the world spews during five years of burning coal, gas and other fossil fuels, adding to concerns that attempts to curtail carbon-spewing motors and power plants may not be enough halt the progression of global warming.

By 2100 the amount of carbon released by permafrost loss could be “1.7-5.2 times larger than those reported,” depending on how swiftly Earth’s surface warms, they said.

The release of various heat-trapping gases under the frozen Arctic ground may be a bigger factor in global warming than the cutting down of forests, resulting in a viscous cycle that could see the effects of global warming exacerbated in the coming decades.

The frozen soils of the northern hemisphere are thought to hold around 1,700 billion tonnes of organic carbon – around four times more than all the carbon ever emitted by modern human activity and twice as much as is currently in the atmosphere.



Read more: http://www.thestatecolumn.com/science/scientists-focus-on-methane-permafrost-in-fight-against-global-warming/#ixzz1h3AdBZxa

Global warming can be a touchy subject. Some people believe it is true and others dont. This shows another theory on how it is happening. Their theory is that when the permafrost thaws at the poles it releases gases. Theses gases heat the world to make a long story short.





VIDEO

http://www.youtube.com/user/chipotle?v=aMfSGt6rHos&feature=pyv&ad=9074646906&kw=causes%20of%20global%20warming


This video is about humans effecting the environment. Humans are said to be the cause of global warming if you believe in global warming. I thought this was a cool video because of how it went through the progression of how people came along through time.