Public Eye
The Quickening Chain Reactions of Global Warming
By: Hank Zevallos
Topics:
Posted by editor Mon Sep 18, 2006 16:01:49 PDT
Viewed 681 times
1 response 0 comments As ice cores from the Antarctic reveal that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are rising at an unprecedented rate not seen in over 600,000 years, another alarming development is causing many scientists to worry that perhaps the world has less than a decade in which to halt global warming before it reaches a point of no return, as serious analysis is suggesting.
As glaciers melt, exposing dark earth that absorbs heat and escalates more snow and ice melting, it has now also been revealed that the melting of frozen bogs in Siberia are releasing five times more methane gas than scientific calculations had predicted. This was discovered by a team led by Katey Walter of the University of Alaska, which had decided to investigate the rate at which methane is being released as the Arctic permafrost succumbs to the effects of climate change.
An area along the Kolyma river near Cherskii in Russia was chosen for the study. Shocking results, echoed by studies at 100 other north Siberian sites, reveal methane discharge levels five times higher than had previously been estimated.
Produced in soil by bacterial decomposition, methane gas is normally released into the atmosphere. But, the permafrost regions of Siberia and the Arctic have locked the gas into the frozen soil, building up a vast reservoir of the gas over the ages.
What makes these new emissions particularly alarming is that methane is also a greenhouse gas. But, it is far more effective at trapping heat than the increased carbon dioxide triggering this chain reaction. This greatly increases the danger now facing our planet.
Scientists calculate that methane has a global warming potential that is 23 times that of carbon dioxide, thus warming the Earth's atmosphere 23 times as much as an equal amount of carbon dioxide.
All of this is creating a vicious cycle where more climate warming is triggering even more warming. News of this startling acceleration came after a week in which scientists revealed a series of other disturbing developments in climate research that suggest the planet is rapidly approaching a critical “tipping point” at which global warming could trigger an irreversible acceleration in climate change.
For example, nearly every wild animal in Britain has extended its range northwards as the country heats up. It is also known that, in addition to the methane built up, vast amounts of carbon dioxide are locked in the planet's frozen zones. In total, it is estimated there could be as much as 450 billion tonnes of methane and carbon dioxide trapped in the world's permafrost.
The gravity of this now looming situation really makes the years of minimizing more easily correctable fossil fuel burning releases of carbon dioxide look morally irresponsible.
Recent studies by researchers from Germany, Switzerland and the United States demonstrate that the sun's energy has varied only minimally over the past 1,000 years, far too little to account for the rise in temperatures since the Industrial Revolution. .
Only a drastically dwindling group of scientists now say that the dominant cause of global warming is a natural one, with most experts agreeing that emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars, are the main cause of the rise in temperatures over the past century.
In the scientific journal Nature, researchers have written that, "The solar contribution to warming over the past 30 years is negligible." This conclusion is based on not just evidence about the sun from satellite observations since 1978. Little sign of solar warming or cooling was also found when they checked telescope observations of sunspots against temperature records going back to the 17th century. They also checked more ancient evidence of rare isotopes and temperatures trapped in sea sediments and Greenland and Antarctic ice, finding no dramatic shifts in solar energy output for at least the past millennium.
The only real question now appears to be how serious are we now going to get about saving a rare planet that often can more resemble heaven than hell.
| Send to a Friend | Report a Violation |
