Posted on 06/15/2006 1:05:52 PM PDT by Abathar
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ancient roots and bones locked in long-frozen soil in Siberia are starting to thaw, and have the potential to unleash billions of tons of carbon and accelerate global warming, scientists said on Thursday.
This vast carbon reservoir, contained in permafrost soil in northeastern Siberia, contains about 75 times more carbon than the amount released into the atmosphere each year by the burning of fossil fuels, the researchers said in a statement.
Siberia isn't the only place on Earth with massive lodes of permafrost -- parts of Alaska, Canada and northern Europe have them too. The Siberian area is possibly the world's largest, covering nearly 400,000 square miles, with an average depth of 82 feet, and probably holds about 500 billion metric tons of carbon.
By any measure, this is a lot, and it is in fact twice what scientists previously believed was there, ecologist Ted Schuur of the University of Florida said in a telephone interview.
"There's a huge pool of carbon, even more than people thought before, perhaps double the amount of carbon that we thought," said Schuur, one of the article's co-authors. "If you have twice as much carbon there, essentially in the future twice as much could be released into the atmosphere."
Cars, power plants and other fossil fuel burners release at least 6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually, contributing to global warming, the scientists said.
As the Siberian permafrost thaws, it will release the carbon contained in old grass roots and buried animal bones into the atmosphere, in what could be an unstoppable contributor to global climate change, according to the researchers.
Earlier climate models may have failed to account for this possible component of global warming, he said.
Schuur said this source of atmospheric carbon could create a vicious global warming cycle.
"You have anthropogenic (human-generated) carbon that's making things a little bit warmer, and that causes the permafrost to warm up and carbon is then released from the permafrost," he said. "It goes into the atmosphere and makes things warmer yet again, so then more permafrost thaws."
If all Siberian permafrost thawed and released its carbon in the form of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, it could nearly double the 730 billion metric tons of carbon now in the atmosphere, the scientists said.
Oh. My. GOD. Not CARBON!!! Not CARBON - the fundamental building block of all life on Earth!!! Not CARBON, which, when mixed with oxygen in just the right proprotions, forms a perfect PLANT FOOD! Not CARBON, which can be morphed into such insidious products as Diamonds, Coal and Graphite!!! Please god no! Say it isn't CARBON!!!!
Skeeters.
The greenies are simply terrified at the prospect of vast areas of permafrost region warming enough to permit the cultivation of winter wheat, thereby making it possible to feed more people.
Besides all that, no one is even close to understanding the global carbon cycle.
I wish I could remember which FReeper posted this first, but...
Other things to worry about: Asteroid Impact, Same Sex Marriage, Massive gamma ray burst from an outside the solar system event, BSE nvCJD, SARS, Smallpox, Ebola ,Flu- (human, bird, swine, duck, chicken), Salmonella, Carbs, Fat, Protein, Terrorists, Anthrax, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Too little ozone, Too much ozone, Global warming, Global cooling, Global Warming Chaos, Pesticides, Deer ticks, Nerve gas, Dirty bombs, Haliburton, SUVs, Guns, Acid rain, Too much Rain, Too little Rain, Nuclear power, Non-nuclearpower, Nuclear war, Conventional war, Wind Turbines shredding endangered birds, Obesity, Starvation, BCS, The Yankees with ARod, NCAA Basketball Tournament Selections, Pit bulls, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes ,Doberman Pinschers, Chow Chows, Great Danes, St. Bernards, Akitas, green ketchup, MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), Pet spiders, Yard Sale Congestion, Red King Crabs, Shadow people, Cattle mutilations, Junk Science, Supersize fries, Our worst fears were confirmed, steroids in baseball, microwave popcorn, HIV, Peak Oil, Cholesterol both LDL and HDL, second hand smoke, Google Telephone Searches, backyard nuclear reactor, Nitrogen pollution, Carbon Dioxide Reported at Record Levels, Dangerous' Curry Colourings Cataracts from computers, brain tumors from cell phones, fire ants, killer bees, killer tomatoes, killer clowns the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Terrell Owens and Ron Artest, Exploding cell phones, cryptococcus gattii, methylisothiazolinone (MIT), "holiday heart," , U.S. Teens Are Among the Worst at Math, picking your teeth in public,"The Hamdog.", . ...
So much to worry about...
Asteroid Impact, Same Sex Marriage, Massive gamma ray burst from an outside the solar system event, BSE nvCJD, SARS, Smallpox, Ebola ,Flu- (human, bird, swine, duck, chicken), Salmonella, Carbs, Fat, Protein, Terrorists, Anthrax, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Too little ozone, Too much ozone, Global warming, Global cooling, Global Warming Chaos, Pesticides, Deer ticks, Nerve gas, Dirty bombs, Haliburton, SUVs, Guns, Acid rain, Too much Rain, Too little Rain, Nuclear power, Non-nuclearpower, Nuclear war, Conventional war, Wind Turbines shredding endangered birds, Obesity, Starvation, BCS, The Yankees with ARod, NCAA Basketball Tournament Selections, Pit bulls, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes ,Doberman Pinschers, Chow Chows, Great Danes, St. Bernards, Akitas, green ketchup, MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), Pet spiders, Yard Sale Congestion, Red King Crabs, Shadow people, Cattle mutilations, Junk Science, Supersize fries, Our worst fears were confirmed, steroids in baseball, microwave popcorn, HIV, Peak Oil, Cholesterol both LDL and HDL, second hand smoke, Google Telephone Searches, backyard nuclear reactor, Nitrogen pollution, Carbon Dioxide Reported at Record Levels, Dangerous' Curry Colourings Cataracts from computers, brain tumors from cell phones, fire ants, killer bees, killer tomatoes, killer clowns the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Terrell Owens and Ron Artest, Exploding cell phones, cryptococcus gattii, methylisothiazolinone (MIT), "holiday heart," , U.S. Teens Are Among the Worst at Math, picking your teeth in public"The Hamdog.", Plastic Wrap in a Microwave, mercury, perfluorooctanoic acid, Teflon, Thawing Permafrost...
So much to worry about...
Today we use it's various toxic byproducts for botox, bioweapons, and everything in the tween.
'twas I!
Toe fungus.
"Did I forget anything?"
At least one other that I recall: Cyclemates(sp?) An artificial sweetner used in diet soda in the late 60's early 70's.
PCB's, cyclimates, asbestos, the sun, love canal, acid rain, florida alligators, bermuda triangle, we don't stand a chance, we'll all going to die!
No need for a frown! It was cast into the freeper domain for use to high-light all the absurd everything is a crisis reporting from the MSM--Heck, I even left off the latest KFC cooking oil lawsuit. Just too many things to worry about if you take the MSM seriously.
I can believe it. I live in the desert, and there's either too much rain, which creates fuel for summer fires, or not enough, which dries out the fuel for summer fires, which means there's always a "high fire danger" in summer. What it really boils down to, though, is that the government(s) don't want you going out into the wilderness and possibly starting a fire that they have to spend money putting out, money they've already spent on something else (like "education").
;O)
This is a win win for Russia and Canada. If Global Warming REALLY kicks off, they beomce the new breadbaskets of the world.
The tundra is actually carbonated water that was stored there by space aliens who used it for soft drinks.
They're gonna be mad if we drink it all. /sarcasm
(We're all gonna DIE!!!) >>
of old age
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