Arctic Scare Increasing

Over the past two or three decades the notion of Global Warming has been a problem regarding melting sea ice and the rapid decline in Polar Bears. Even though these are major concerns in the environment, what is now a real cause for concern is the warm temperature in the Arctic has caused  the thawing of frozen soil. Frozen soil is a lighter term for permafrost, and permafrost emits carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. This emission can weaken the already beaten up Ozone Layer.

What makes researchers most nervous is, “There may be more than twice as much carbon contained in northern permafrost as there is in the atmosphere itself. That’s a staggering thought.” Even though there is already around 24% of permafrost currently emitted in the atmosphere, the idea of having close to or above 50% is frightening. 

Robert Max, senior scientist at Woods Hole Research Center explained in detail how permafrost works and how environmentally devastating it can be. “As permafrost thaws, microbes start to chow down on the organic material that it contains, and as that material decomposes, it emits either carbon dioxide or methane. Experts think most of the release will take the form of carbon dioxide — the chief greenhouse gas driving global warming — but even a small fraction released as methane can have major consequences.”

The reason for high levels of carbon and methane in the melting Arctic is the amount of dead animals and plants which have decomposed in the frozen Arctic and are beginning to thaw and release all of these gases at once. Even though permafrost is not the greatest concern of the melting Arctic, it still posses a threat which gives concerns to many researchers and scientists.

For more Arctic news and updates, please visit Larry Mayer‘s official website.

 

 

Arctic Sea Levels – Stable

An Inconvenient Truth, the infamous Al Gore documentary where he spoke about Global Warming and the almost certain fate of the Earth. According to Gore, the polar ice caps would melt out by 2015 due to the rapid change in temperature causing harm and potentially killing various species and could harm the Earth as a whole. Although, Gore’s predictions of Earth’s fate was way off as we closed out 2014. In fact, the arctic sea and ice levels have remained stable for the past couple of years which is fantastic news.

According to the DailyCaller, “Arctic Sea ice levels are above where they were at the same time last winter and are well within the the standard deviation of the 1981 to 2010 variation, according to daily sea ice data. Europe’s CryoSat-2 satellite found that sea-ice volumes for the fall of 2014 were above the average extent for the last five years.” Also, researchers and experts of the Arctic such as Dr. Benny Peiser, director of the Global Warming Policy Forum, claimed, “Global sea ice is at a record high, another key indicator that something is working in the opposite direction of what was predicted. Most people think the poles are melting… they’re not. This is a huge inconvenience that reality is now catching up with climate alarmists, who were predicting that the poles would be melting fairly soon.” Even though Gore’s predictions on the melting of the polar ice caps were off, many still believe we may see the ice begin to melt at a rapid pace.

While many scientists remain optimistic that that ice caps will continue to remain at this level, some believe we can see the arctic ice free by 2030 if the rate of Global Warming continues. Environmentalists at the Center for Biological Diversity stated, “The Arctic could be ice-freeas soon as 2012. It wasn’t. Now, the group climate scientists say the Arctic could be completely ice-free in the summer by the 2030s. Scientists also argue that future global temperature rises will continue to shrink the Arctic until it is ice-free, maybe even in our lifetimes.” These environmentalists have mis predicted in the past but seem very confident about this new guess that by summer of 2030 we will have no ice in the Arctic.

Hopes are we will out live this new prediction of 2030 and continue to keep our polar ice caps stable. For more information on the topic, please visit the DailyCaller‘s article. Also please visit http://larrymayerunh.com for more information about the Arctic and the Ocean.