The Arctic–The Most Rapidly Warming Part of the Planet

The Arctic is already the most rapidly warming part of the planet, and methane released from melting ice there might accelerate warming world-wide. BBC News reports:

Scientists have identified thousands of sites in the Arctic where methane that has been stored for many millennia is bubbling into the atmosphere.

The methane has been trapped by ice, but is able to escape as the ice melts.

Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, the researchers say this ancient gas could have a significant impact on climate change…

“The Arctic is the fastest warming region on the planet, and has many methane sources that will increase as the temperature rises,” commented Prof Euan Nisbet from Royal Holloway, University of London, who is also involved in Arctic methane research.

“This is yet another serious concern: the warming will feed the warming.”

How serious and how immediate a threat this feedback mechanism presents is a controversial area, with some scientists believing that the impacts will not be seen for many decades, and others pointing out the possibility of a rapid release that could swiftly accelerate global warming.

Of course conservatives don’t have to worry about this because to them this is all a hoax. They aren’t going to believe in “theories” such as evolution, or gravity, or believe that the earth is round.

 

5 Comments

  1. 1
    Michael Kruse says:

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  2. 2
    Liberal Effects says:

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  3. 3
    adam_zander says:

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  4. 4
    Joseph Auclair says:

    You write, “Of course conservatives don’t have to worry about this because to them this is all a hoax. They aren’t going to believe in ‘theories’ such as evolution, or gravity, or believe that the earth is round.”

    Snark aside, along with reference to gravity and the spherical Earth, has anyone done research to find a correlation between global warming denail and the evolution denial that is Young Earth Creationism?

    Supposedly, to this day some 40% of Americans reject any form of evolution and insist the world and mankind, roughly in their present forms, came into existence some 6,000 years ago.

    A fairly large percentage deny global warming.

    How are the two sets of deniers related?

  5. 5
    Ron Chusid says:

    Best answer I can cite quickly without searching through old polls is that the key relationship between both deniers is that there is a very high degree of denial of both evolution and of climate change among Republicans. There would have to be a large number of Republicans who deny both to obtain such results. Generally these are separate polls, but I wonder if there is a poll out there which asks both questions which might provide more exact numbers on how many Republicans deny both.

    The correlation isn’t one hundred percent. The religious right generally denies evolution. I think a high percent also deny climate change, probably because of the manner in which Republican voters from one camp often take on the views of other groups of Republicans. There are also exceptions with a small component of the religious right being very concerned about the environment, seeing protecting what they see as God’s creation as being a major priority.

    Climate change deniers often come from economic conservatives who find it more convenient to deny the problem as opposed to admitting a problem which would require large scale government action to solve. Some of these share views with the religious right, but others do not. I’ve known some who are quite accurate in their criticism of faux science with creationism, but they fail to understand that you can’t pick and choose when you accept science and when you do not and still make sense.

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