In case you haven't been watching the news, something very serious is happening in the world right now that affects every single human being. We are experiencing heat waves in Alaska and Siberia. Iff you know anything about the Arctics role in global warming, you would be frightened.
The dreaded permafrost methane pulses which cryosphere scientists have been warning us about are beginning to emerge from Russia. Look on the image on that page....yellow dots are measured methane outgassing.
Peter Kershaw, an adjunct professor of earth sciences at the University of Alberta, who was in Churchill, Canada recently on a research project noted:
"That organic material is being made available for decomposition. It’s out of the freezer and sitting on the counter.”
So we are beginning to see permafrost thawing scenarios being reported all over the Arctic. This is the beginning of the large positive feedback loops that cryosphere scientists have been warning us about. Once we start the ball rolling, there's no way to stop it...we can only sit back and watch it unfold.
Dr. Jennifer Francis explains it here:
Basically, this is all happening in large part because the Arctic Ocean sea ice has almost completely melted. Lay people don't understand the significance of that. The temperature differential of air masses between equator and poles is what maintains a fast moving and low lattitudal amplitude jet stream. That temperature differential is significantly reduced due to the Arctic ice disappearing, which in turn causes the darker ocean to absorb more solar radiation. Dr. Francis explains that in 2012, the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the Arctic Ocean that was once sea ice amounts to enough energy to power the United States for 25 years. The smaller temperature gradient between pole and equator distorts the jet stream, making it wavier and slower moving. This additional waviness means it penetrates up into the Arctic. The slow speed means that high pressure domes form in the Arctic and stick around for a long time. This is the explanation of what happened with the unprecedented Greenland melt and also for Alaska reaching 36 Deg C on June 17, 2013...warmer temperatures than 48 states in the south.
A paper was recently released in Nature Comment that estimated that if the Arctic releases a 50Gigaton pulse of methane, we will suffer 60 trillion USD of economic loss. To put that in perspective, our entire global economy is currently valuated at $70 Trillion USD.
Pay attention to the news to see how much longer the heat wave persists, how many wildfires burn, how rapidly the Arctic sea ice is shrinking and for methane pulses as permafrost begins to thaw. Currently, anthropogenic CO2 emissions are a huge problem at 31.5 Gt/annum....the permafrost holds up to 1850 Gt. The atmosphere contains 850 Gt of Carbon.
Methane hydrates under the shallow East Siberian Arctic Shelf could release many more gigatons as well if the undersea permafrost cap gives way.
Robert Scribbers website above is a great resource for up-to-date news. You can also follow developments and the history of the events and cryosphere research on my Arctic / Antarctic page:
Today, human civilization has reached a rather sad milestone. I would say planet Earth has now reached an emergency situation with the Arctic and there's no more time to fool around. We need fast action on climate mitigation.
Thanks for your ears
Kindest
-- We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails
Birtha Calloway
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