MOSCOW (AP) — The Arctic is feverish and on fire — at least parts of it are. And that’s got scientists worried about what it means for the rest of the world.
Once the permafrost starts to thaw, it’s on.
The release of methane gas trapped beneath the permafrost will have immediate lethal effects on the planet and its inhabitants.
We’re about to find out first hand what ‘irreversible’ means.
Global pandemic, world-wide dust storms, hurricanes, locusts, megaviruses, murder hornets… who had “arctic on fire” on their Armageddon Bingo card? The one concern not mentioned in the article is the release of infectious organisms trapped in the permafrost. There was an outbreak of anthrax in 2016 from the thawing permafrost. There are bodies harboring smallpox and other known pathogens frozen throughout the arctic region. And who knows what microorganisms that were trapped in the ice before man appeared? Like that famous philosopher Ramsay Bolton once noted, “If you think this has a happy ending, you have not been paying attention.”
Earth, not quite as hot as Venus.
‘Alarm Bells Should Be Ringing’
In fact, they were ringing fifty years ago …
I fully expect that Arizona will be close to (or completely) uninhabitable by the end of the century. Maybe sooner if we’re caught in a positive feedback loop.
Maybe this will get Putin’s grubby hands on his own problems.
I think he sees it as a means of getting at more oil and transporting it through an ice-free arctic ocean. All these fuckers care about is money.
“Naught but the Leg remaining to disclose
The site of this forgotten Babylon.”
There are areas in Arizona that should never have been made “inhabitable.”
That’s part of the problem – part of how we got where we are.
And that’s it right there.
Thawing has been ongoing for quite some time. You can go to google maps and zoom in on many areas of Siberia in the tundra and see random black dots in the white surface. Zoom in further and you see roundish holes. These are caused by random methane bursts caused by the thawing process. I don’t know if spontaneous combustion occurs frequently or not. If it does occur, then the methane would be converted to CO2, which would be better in the short run, but all methane released to the environment eventually reverts to CO2. Methane is a much worse greenhouse gas than CO2.
If COVID isn’t enough to keep you awake at night, read this:
Do you want to talk about Saudi Arabia pumping out all your water in AZ from your aquifers?
Personally, I think water will be the main issue going forward in parts of California, Arizona, not rising temps.
A coworker in 2002 bought a new house for a reasonable price on Indian land near Tuba City, Arizona. The land it was built on was leased for a 100 years. I was temped to buy one also, but my main concern back then was water being available for a reasonable cost past 25 years or so.
Peat bogs drying out and burning in the Arctic is going to be a much bigger problem. Peat releases a lot of CO2 when it’s burned. It’s all organic matter that’s generally a huge carbon sink when wet and not burning.
The exact opposite of sequestration.
