Massive peat burn is speeding climate change

NewScientist.com ^ | November 6, 2004 | Fred Pearce

[JmyBryan]

Massive peat burn is speeding climate change

09:45 06 November 04

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition.

The recent surge in levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which made front-page headlines around the world last month, may have been caused in part by smouldering peat bogs in Borneo.

This is the claim of a UK expert on the bogs, who says that further fires will accelerate global warming. “Burning peat could be a major contributor to the as yet unexplained accelerating build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere since 1998,” says Jack Rieley of the University of Nottingham in the UK. His warning comes as peat bogs in Indonesia began burning again last month ...

[JmyBryan]

...In 2002, Rieley and his colleagues estimated that during 1997 and 1998 smouldering peat beneath the Borneo forests released between 0.8 and 2.6 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere. That is equivalent to 13 to 40 per cent of all emissions from burning fossil fuels, and contributed to the CO2 peak in 1998...

[GeronL]

So the UN needs to invade Borneo?? I thought it was the US' fault. Well, I am sure they'll find a way to blame the US

[GeronL]

The answer, of course, will be a massive US-funded program to give Borneo an alternative....

[konaice]

We get these peat bog fires in Alaska too, as well as northern Canada. There is just about nothing that will put them out other than digging huge deep trenches around them.

They can be very smokey and last for years. Right thru the winter into the next summer.

[mysto]

So has Borneo signed the Kyoto treaty yet? ;-)

[Khurkris]

Yep...smouldering bog fire just south of Fairbanks has been flaring up every summer for 35+ years. Its so predicatble that the water-drop fire crews use it for training and testing equiptment.

[nunya bidness]

Having a cook-out? And I wasn't invited...

[Route101]

Hey U.N!!!...do something useful!!!.....

[darth]

The cheapest way to sequester CO2 is row cropping. A promising alternative is adding trace minerals, e.g., iron, to ocean regions to increase plankton production as well as fish harvest. We can lock up the CO2 faster than fossil fuels release it.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[E.G.C.]

BTT!!!!!!

[Pagey]

Gee, and I thought my car was to blame. LOL

[Seadog Bytes]

WHOA!   THAT's a relief!!!

...So, it's been those darn ol' 'Indonesian peat burners' all along, huh?
...and here, all this time, I thought it was ...BUSH'S FAULT!!!