Permafrost is defined as soil, sediment, or rock – including ice and organic material – that’s remained frozen for at least two straight years. Permafrost covers a large area of land in the Northern Hemisphere. The problem? It’s thawing.
Permafrost lands contain vast stores of carbon. Thawing permafrost releases large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane gas, which had previously been trapped in the frozen ground. And if the thawing continues as expected, it could drastically increase global warming.
By 2100, a U.N report projects that thawing permafrost could emit the equivalent of between 43 and 135 billion tons of carbon dioxide – which, according to Reuters, would be up to 39 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions from human sources.
The U.N study reports thawing permafrost threatens homes, roads, railways, and oil pipelines in many countries, including Russia, Canada, China, and the United States. It could also undermine global infrastructure, including bridges and power lines, and harm animal and plant species.
And the thawing permafrost means that U.N. projections for rising temperatures this century may be too low.
Two years ago, nations at the U.N. climate talks agreed to limit global temperature rise to less than two degrees centigrade. Now, a separate report also released by the U.N., indicates rising global greenhouse gas emissions are on track to push up temperatures 3 to 5 degrees centigrade by 2100.
For the sustainability of all living species – humans, plants and animals – we need to address climate change.
Web Links
Melting permafrost a new peril in global warming: U.N.
Thawing of Permafrost Expected to Cause Significant Additional Global Warming, Not yet Accounted for in Climate Predictions
http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=2698&ArticleID=9338&l=en&t=long
Permafrost
http://www.wunderground.com/climate/permafrost.asp
Photo, taken in August 2009, courtesy of Juan-Vidal Daaz via Flickr.