Can you believe they're worried about melting peat bogs? Front page news in London, stock listings will command more attention in the U.S., thank goodness. The fact that moderate models of climate change suggest the levels of Lakes Huron and Michigan might fall 3-5 feet by the end of the century is not our concern. That's a problem for those who come after us.
OK, maybe 98% of the scientists are overreacting. But doesn't prudence dictate that we take notice and try to prevent the worst?
A vast expanse of western Sibera is undergoing an unprecedented thaw that could dramatically increase the rate of global warming, climate scientists warn today.
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.
The area, which covers the entire sub-Arctic region of western Siberia, is the world's largest frozen peat bog and scientists fear that as it thaws, it will release billions of tonnes of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.
It is a scenario climate scientists have feared since first identifying "tipping points" - delicate thresholds where a slight rise in the Earth's temperature can cause a dramatic change in the environment that itself triggers a far greater increase in global temperatures.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1546824,00.html
Posted by Dave at August 11, 2005 03:30 AM