Warming hits 'tipping point' [Siberia melting]

The Guardian (UK) ^ | August 11, 2005 | Ian Sample, science correspondent

[aculeus]

They almost didn't mention Bush.

[SamAdams76]

But they made a nice recovery at the end.

[Simmy2.5]

Wouldn't this be a good thing for the people living in Siberia? Longer warmer weathers. Hmmmmm.

[narby]

Well, we'd better take those scrubbers off the coal plants so we can get back to the global cooling we had until 1970.

That soot does absorb sunlinght you know.

[Hardastarboard]

some of the world's worst air polluters, including the US and Australia

I live in an area where I've had to have my cars tested at least six times (I've actually lost count it's been so frequent) for emissions in the last three years. We have no manufacturing base. How the F))K can the US be one of the worst polluters?

I have an idea. We should capture all that methane and burn it, just like the green fascists demand. Cheap fuel, and we don't offend Mother Gaia. That ought to make the environazis happy, right?

[Texas Eagle]

Researchers who have recently returned from the region found that an area of perma-frost has started to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

Since the LAST ice age???

You mean there's been more than one? And if it FORMED 11,000 years ago, what was it 11,001 years ago?

[RightWhale]

The causal effect is human activity

See? That is where they go wrong every time. They are grasping at threads. Even if it were human activity [subjunctive conditional] the proposed political solutions are way off base.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Siberian women and children hit hardest?

[359Henrie]

All that gas and I bet we cant drill for it.

[Frank_2001]

There were a lot of very cold people living there against their will for 75 years; the lefty wackjobs were not too concerned about them then.....

[RightWhale]

Interesting idea. There should be a way to capture the gas. Big project.

[McGavin999]

WOW, look at all that good, fertile soil that is being exposed. Now trees will grow, they'll probably find massive amounts of oil. Just think, if under the permafrost in Russia and Alaska there are oil reserves bigger than the middle east, just think of how that will change things.

Besides, areas that get too hot can move to the new, warmer and more hospitable areas of Siberia.

[LRS]

Tony Juniper, director of Friends of the Earth...

Exidor, director of Friends of Venus...

[conservativecorner]

The only tipping point the writer can relate to is his tipping point with the hard stuff, if ya know what I mean. The enviro-fascists and liberal media are beating this to death with nothing other than wacky science. 30 years ago they said we were headed for global cooling, so I take everything these supposed experts say with a grain of salt.

[federal]

Researchers who have recently returned from the region found that an area of permafrost spanning a million square kilometres - the size of France and Germany combined - has started to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.

I wonder how they got this information did they talk to some locals, And if it thawed before did SUVs cause it or was it "like" related to a natural cycle.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"'If we don't take action very soon, we could unleash runaway global warming that will be beyond our control and it will lead to social, economic and environmental devastation worldwide,' he said. 'There's still time to take action, but not much.'"

And by "action" they mean: SEND MONEY! Now! Immediately! Hurry up will ya?!?

Send your signed, blank, drawn only on an AMERICAN bank, check to: PO Box 123, Global Warming Pass, Siberia, USSR-istan 02134

[datura]

70bn tonnes of methane, a quarter of all of the methane stored in the ground around the world.

Gazprom should get right on this - cap the tundra off and collect it all. After all, it's only NATURAL GAS. (Yes, the same NATURAL GAS that we PAY FOR!) The same NATURAL GAS that runs power plants.

And now the enviros are up in arms because they found some more of it. Too f_cking bad.

[Tarpon]

Anyone know what caused the ice age?

Trick question, you have been warned.

[coconutt2000]

I have it from an inside source at the Sierra Club, that the Bush Administration is directly responsible for the global warming that ended the last ice age 11,000 years ago.

Yes.


Just kidding...

[RightWhale]

I live on permafrost. Or, I used to. There is still ice down there, but it doesn't come as near the surface as it did. It is interesting to see how the lot has gone from perfectly flat to something with terrain. The trees, mostly swamp spruce, have started growing. They were maybe twelve feet high, now they are fifty and starting to get some girth. A couple of ponds are starting to form. Overall, the lot is much more interesting, and the house has kind of settled down so I don't have to jack it up every year.