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More Carbon Dioxide From Thawing Permafrost | Earth Wise

July 30, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Arctic is warming much faster than the rest of the planet. Stories about the loss of polar ice and hundred-degree temperatures in Siberia have become commonplace. One of the most troubling aspects of the warming Arctic is the thawing of permafrost. Permafrost is ground that remains frozen for at least two years; some of it has been frozen for tens or hundreds or even thousands of years. Found under a layer of soil, permafrost is composed of rock, soil, sediments, and varying amounts of ice. It stores the carbon-based remains of plants and animals that froze before they could decompose. Permafrost covers almost a quarter of North America, but it is starting to thaw.

Scientists estimate that there are more than 16,000 billion tons of carbon locked away in Arctic permafrost, which is almost double the amount of carbon that is currently in the atmosphere. Climate models predict that the warming of the Arctic could lead to 5 to 15% of that carbon to be emitted as carbon dioxide by the year 2,100, which would be enough to raise global temperatures by 0.3 to 0.4 degrees Celsius.

New research has increased this estimate because it includes a key pathway for CO2 to enter the atmosphere that earlier models ignored. When carbon from thawing permafrost escapes into Arctic lakes and rivers, it is oxidized by ultraviolet and visible light and it then escapes into the atmosphere as CO2. This process is known as photomineralization and is estimated to raise permafrost-related CO2 emissions by 14%.

Recent studies project that with every 1-degree Celsius increase in temperature, 1.5 million square miles of permafrost could be lost through thawing.

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Climate Models Underestimate CO2 Emissions from Permafrost by 14 Percent, Study Finds

Photo, posted July 7, 2014, courtesy of NPS Climate Change via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Saving The Arctic Permafrost | Earth Wise

April 17, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Permafrost is frozen ground – a combination of soil, rock, sand, and ice – that remains at or below freezing for at least two consecutive years. Approximately 25% of the land in the Northern Hemisphere meets this criterion, the majority of which can be found in northern Russia, Canada, Alaska, Iceland, and Scandinavia.

But as a result of the changing climate, these permafrost soils in the Arctic are beginning to thaw. As they thaw, large quantities of greenhouse gases could be released, further accelerating climate change.

A new study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports explores an unconventional countermeasure: resettling massive herds of large herbivores. According to researchers from the University of Hamburg in Germany, herds of horses, bison, and reindeer could be used to significantly slow the loss of permafrost soils.

During Arctic winters, the air temperature is often much colder than the permafrost. Thick layers of snow can insulate the ground from the frigid air, keeping the permafrost warm (relatively speaking). But when the snow cover is scattered and compressed by the hooves of grazing animals, the insulating effect is reduced, which intensifies the freezing of the permafrost.

If climate change continues unchecked, the research team expects permafrost temperatures to rise 3.8-degrees Celsius. This would result in half of the world’s permafrost thawing by the year 2100. But in contrast, researchers found that the permafrost would only warm by 2.1 degrees Celsius with the resettled animals. This 44% reduction in permafrost temperature would preserve 80% of the existing permafrost by 2100.

Natural manipulations of ecosystems could have tremendous results.

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How horses can save the permafrost

Photo, posted July 17, 2012, courtesy of Kitty Terwolbeck via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Melting Permafrost | Earth Wise

February 26, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The Arctic is warming faster than any region on Earth and mostly we’ve been hearing about the rapid disappearance of Arctic sea ice. But the land in the Arctic is also undergoing major changes, especially to the permafrost that has been there for millennia.

Permafrost occurs in areas where the temperature of the ground remains below freezing for two years or more. About a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere’s landscape meets this criterion. Most of the world’s permafrost is found in northern Russia, Canada, Alaska, Iceland, and Scandinavia.

Permafrost regions previously carpeted in cranberries, blueberries, shrubs, sedges, and lichen are now being transformed into nothing but mud, silt, and peat. So-called regressive thaw slumps – essentially landslides – are creating large craters in the landscape. (The Batagaika Crater in the Yana River Basin of Siberia is a kilometer long and 100 meters deep).

Apart from the violence being done to the Arctic landscape, the greatest concern is that the permafrost has locked in huge stores of greenhouse gases, including methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide. It is estimated that the permafrost contains twice as much carbon as is currently contained in the atmosphere. As the permafrost thaws, these gases will be released. With them will be pathogens from bygone millennia whose impact cannot be predicted. Climatologists estimate that 40% of the permafrost could be gone by the end of the century.

As the permafrost thaws, the region’s ecosystems are changing, making it increasingly difficult for subsistence indigenous people and Arctic animals to find food. Landslides are causing stream flows to change, lakes to suddenly drain, seashores to collapse, and water chemistry to be altered.

The warming Arctic is about much more than disappearing sea ice.

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How Thawing Permafrost Is Beginning to Transform the Arctic

Photo, posted February 9, 2017, courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Solar And Wind Energy And Groundwater

December 30, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The use of both solar and wind farms has been expanding all over the country as a way of lowering carbon emissions from the electric power sector. According to a new study led by Princeton University, these renewable energy sources have another important benefit: they keep more water in the ground.

The study focused on drought-prone California where both solar and wind power have been expanding dramatically. California is the largest agricultural producer in the United States and has also experienced one of the most severe droughts on record between 2012 and 2017.

The study determined that increased solar and wind energy can reduce the reliance on hydropower, especially during times of drought.

The study looked at multiple scenarios in order to determine how much solar and wind energy should be used to maximize economic revenue and to see how solar and wind power could ensure groundwater recovery. They created a framework to quantify the optimal pathways for maximizing hydroelectricity and agricultural income while avoiding groundwater depletion.

During the long drought, California’s agriculture industry relied heavily on tapping into groundwater stores, which is an unsustainable practice. With more droughts likely to occur in California as well as increasing water demand from the growing California population, the burden on the state’s groundwater supply will only grow.

According to the researchers, it is far more practical to impose further regulations on groundwater use if sufficient solar and wind power is deployed. They caution that these resources need to be deployed long before groundwater aquifers are depleted, or it will be too late for them to do any good.

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Solar and Wind Energy Preserve Groundwater for Drought, Agriculture

Photo, posted December 11, 2014, courtesy of Tony Webster via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Rising Seas Will Erase Cities

December 18, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to new research, climate-driven sea level rise could affect three times more people by 2050 than previously thought. This sobering assessment means some of the world’s great coastal cities, including Bangkok, Shanghai, Mumbai, Basra, Alexandria, and Ho Chi Minh City, could be in big trouble.

Scientists have always relied on land elevation data to determine the effects of sea level rise over large areas. But standard elevation measurements using satellites struggle to differentiate the true ground level from the tops of trees or buildings. The authors of the paper developed a more accurate way to calculate land elevation by using artificial intelligence to determine the error rate and to correct for it. The new findings revealed that 150 million people – three times more than previously thought – are now living on land that is projected to be below the high-tide line by the middle of this century.

Eight Asian nations – China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Japan – account for about 70% of the people living on at-risk land.

More than 20 million people in Vietnam, including much of Ho Chi Minh City, live on land that will be inundated by 2050. In Thailand, more than 10% of its citizens, including much of Bangkok, currently live on land imperiled by projected sea level rise.

This new research was produced by Climate Central, a New Jersey-based science organization, and was recently published in the journal Nature Communications.

Sea level rise is clearly not just an environmental problem. It’s a humanitarian crisis.

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New elevation data triple estimates of global vulnerability to sea-level rise and coastal flooding

Rising Seas Will Erase More Cities by 2050, New Research Shows

Photo, posted December 18, 2009, courtesy of Misko via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Whopping Change

April 10, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Burger King, the global hamburger fast food giant, recently made a huge announcement: Customers will soon have the option to select either a beef patty or a plant-based patty when ordering the iconic Whopper sandwich.

Burger King’s plant-based patty will be made by Impossible Foods, a California startup founded in 2011 with the explicit goal of decreasing the world’s reliance on animal agriculture. Impossible Foods signature product, the Impossible burger, has already debuted as a slider in White Castle’s 380 or so stores. It’s also being added to the menu at all 570 Red Robin locations. Other plant-based innovators, such as Beyond Meat, have also found some mainstream success. But the Impossible Whopper and the planned national roll-out at Burger King’s 7,200 locations is the biggest deal to date.

Impossible Foods’ major innovation comes from its use of heme, which is an iron-rich protein that in essence is what makes meat taste like meat. Impossible Foods cultivates heme directly from plants – soybean plant roots to be exact – and then mass produces it using yeast. This is then mixed with other plant-based ingredients to achieve the nutty texture of ground beef.

Meat production is one of the biggest single contributors to climate change. The Impossible burger represents a better choice for the environment. It requires 87% less water, 96% less land, and produces 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions when compared with beef burgers. At Burger King, the Impossible Whopper will have the same amount of protein as the regular Whopper, but 15% less fat and 90% less cholesterol.

Meatless continues to push into the mainstream.

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