Permafrost Defrost Accelerates Climate Change
More Permafrost Than Thought May Be Lost as Planet Warms
Henry Foutain, April 11, 2017 (NY Times)
“As global warming thaws the permafrost, the frozen land that covers nearly six million square miles of the earth, a big question for scientists is: How much will be lost?...The answer, according to a new analysis: more than many of them thought…[E]ach degree Celsius of warming will lead to the thawing of about 1.5 million square miles of permafrost [according to An observation-based constraint on permafrost loss as a function of global warming…That figure is at least 20 percent higher than most previous studies…Permafrost thaws slowly over time, but it is already causing problems in the Arctic…The thawing also contributes to climate change, as warmed-up organic matter is decomposed by microbes, releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere…A two-degree increase, the researchers found, would lead to a loss of about 2.5 million square miles of permafrost compared with a 1960-90 baseline, or about 40 percent of the current total…” click here for more
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