Alaska's Permafrost Is Thawing

[Eugene]

Source: New York Times

ALASKA’S PERMAFROST IS THAWING

The loss of frozen ground in Arctic regions is a striking result of climate change and a cause of more warming to come.

BY HENRY FOUNTAIN
AUG. 23, 2017

YUKON DELTA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Alaska — The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as other parts of the planet, and even here in sub-Arctic Alaska the rate of warming is high. Sea ice and wildlife habitat are disappearing; higher sea levels threaten coastal native villages.

But to the scientists from Woods Hole Research Center who have come here to study the effects of climate change, the most urgent is the fate of permafrost, the always-frozen ground that underlies much of the state.

Starting just a few feet below the surface and extending tens or even hundreds of feet down, it contains vast amounts of carbon in organic matter — plants that took carbon dioxide from the atmosphere centuries ago, died and froze before they could decompose. Worldwide, permafrost is thought to contain about twice as much carbon as is currently in the atmosphere.

Once this ancient organic material thaws, microbes convert some of it to carbon dioxide and methane, which can flow into the atmosphere and cause even more warming. Scientists have estimated that the process of permafrost thawing could contribute as much as 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit to global warming over the next several centuries, independent of what society does to reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels and other activities.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/23/climate/alaska-permafrost-thawing.html

[pscot]

1. This only the beginning

[packman]

2. And when you think about all that permafrost in Siberia

That is really scary

[NickB79]

3. "permafrost is thought to contain about twice as much carbon as is currently in the atmosphere. "

Currently we're sitting at 410 ppm. If all the CO2 was released from the permafrost, that would put us at 1200+ ppm.

The last time the world had that much CO2, dinosaurs roamed the Earth, eating ginkgo leaves at the North and South Poles.