Climate change: 'Feedback' triggers could amplify peril

[Turborama]

Source: AFP

PARIS (AFP) — New studies have warned of triggers in the natural environment, including a greenhouse-gas timebomb in Siberia and Canada, that could viciously amplify global warming.

Thawing subarctic tundra could unleash billions of tonnes of gases that have been safely stored in frosty soil, while oceans and forests are becoming less able to suck carbon dioxide (CO2) out of the atmosphere, according to papers presented this weekend. Together, these phenomena mean that more heat-trapping gases will enter the atmosphere, which in turn will stoke global warming, thrusting the machinery of climate change into higher gear.

Researchers in Finland and Russia discovered that nitrous oxide is leaking into the air from so-called "peat circle" ecosystems found throughout the tundra, a vast expanse of territory in higher latitudes.

CO2 and methane account for the lion's share of the gases that have driven global temperatures inexorably higher over the last century. Nitrous oxide, or N2O, is far less plentiful in volume, but 300 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2. It accounts for about six percent of total global warming, mainly due to a shift toward chemical-intensive agriculture.

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Climate_change_Feedback_triggers_could_amplify_0216.html

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Much more about this, here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x272772

[bread_and_roses]

1. Where are our smug "centrists" and "moderates" when another report rolls around showing the Left was

right again? We have been saying some variant of this since the late '60s, if not earlier. We said that humans cannot pollute the land and poison the oceans without destroying the very systems that humans and other life rely upon to survive. The "sensible middle" said we were extreme, we were purists, we were pie-in-the-sky idealists, we were impractical, we didn't understand "how things really work," we were too extreme.

The very same things that are said of us now, by the same chorus.

[defendandprotect]

2. There's a 50 year delay in Global Warming which means the impact we're . . .

feeling right now only reflects human activity up to 1959 --

Further, no one can say how all of this will compound.

Common sense and human experience dictate against polluting our planet -- our nest.

Who ignores this -- ?

Only those with a very weak spiritual connection to Nature, the planet and other human

beings.

Could that be patriarchy and organized patriarchal religion?

Down with "Manifest Destiny" and "Man's Dominion Over Nature" --- religious BS.

[Doremus]

3. Those with a weak connection to nature .... but mostly those with a heightened connection to $$$$.

My experience is it's a little of the former and a LOT of the latter. In other words, greed begets blindness to all else.

As I read the OP, the first thing that came to mind is that we should outlaw the destruction of undeveloped land for construction of luxury hotels, resorts, McMansion and condo developments, shopping centers, etc., etc., etc.

But, greed junkies that they are, they'd probably start seizing low income property and turning its occupants out onto the streets. :mad:

I saw a documentary a few years ago that described a scientist helplessly watching as bulldozers filled in the last remaining habitat on earth for a certain species of shark. Those rich assholes needed that money more than those sharks needed to exist. :cry:

[defendandprotect]

7. Yes . . . those who chose their values by the yardstick of a dollar bill . . .

make suicidal decisions.

"Americans are really smart about really stupid things."

As the lady from Bikini Island said after we had nuked her island!

[goforit]

4. In search of Oil, every 100 drill-holes per one found oil-rig will expound CO2 levels.

[Gregorian]

5. Thank you Rawstory. This is news to me.

I'm not optimistic at all that there will be anything but growth. Sorry folks. Chinese, Indians, they all want what we have. And that isn't good news.

It's going to be our future.

[DCKit]

6. Luckily - for ALL of us - ....

China, India and others, have the opportunity to develop their economies with new technologies, not the Victorian and early 20th century technologies the developed world is wedded to. Sure it's more expensive, up front, but it's a matter of long-term survival vs. short-term profit.

The developing world is at the mercy of global warming as much - and in many cases, more so - than the developed world. Sure, we'll lose some of our most famous cities, but India, China and Bangladesh, to name a few, stand to lose much of their crop and habitable land if they don't look ahead.

Whether they'll do it is debatable, but that doesn't mean we can't (or shouldn't) lead the charge.

[The2ndWheel]

8. "have the opportunity to develop their economies with new technologies"

"not the Victorian and early 20th century technologies the developed world is wedded to"

But weren't those Victorian and early 20th century technologies new technologies at one point?

"Sure it's more expensive, up front, but it's a matter of long-term survival vs. short-term profit."

Again, was there something fundamentally different about that back then? Were the Victorian and early 20th century technologies cheaper up front then what they were working with already?

[DCKit]

9. What's your point?

Of course those antique technologies were "new" at some point. So was the wheel, but we don't use round stones or logs for tires anymore, either. In everything, we have better options.

And yes, the technologies developed in the 18th-20th centuries were less expensive, because they led to an exponential increase in productivity. The capital costs were high, but quickly returned. Unfortunately, the bonus was filthy air and water. We can do better.

Don't be a Luddite.

[The2ndWheel]

10. And every better option has led to a increased impact on the planet

[DCKit]

11. Yes, but Who Would Jesus Kill...

to save the planet?

If you can't imagine anything but genocide as a viable solution to our problems, I suggest you follow your heart, take personal responsibility and leave the rest of us to muddle through.

Live - or not - by example.

[The2ndWheel]

12. Didn't say one word about genocide. Didn't even use a word that started with the letter g

I just asked a few questions about your faith in technology. Didn't know you'd suggest death for doing it. What century is this? Do I at least get a second chance to convert?

[marksmithfield]

13. Nitrous coming out of the ground free??

It is our duty to seek out these places and find some way of absorbing this gas before it escapes any further. Of course the dental consortium is making plans as well.