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Siberian Peatlands
Roach, John. "Melting Arctic Bogs May Hasten Warming, Study Says." National Geographic News. Dec. 1, 2004 However, as the West Siberian peatlands warm, they may dry up. However, when peatlands stop functioning this way, they start breaking down. As they break down, they release both methane and carbon dioxide as gases that get added to our atmosphere.
In this article, Roach interviews leading experts on global warming to look at new trends, focusing on an area in Siberia. He reports that although Earth as a whole is warming, the Arctic seems to be warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet, which may have significant effects on the planet as w whole. Places where warming has accelerated are called "hot spots." An area in West Siberia holds the largest peatlands in the world. Peatlands have specific attributes that may affect global warming.
Well-functioning peatlands may act as "carbon sinks." A carbon sink is an area of land where the vegetation uses excess carbon dioxide, removing it from the atmosphere (Ramanujan, 2002). When peatlands function well, they have abundant vegetation to use carbon dioxide in the process of
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As of now, the Siberian peat bogs still absorb more gases than they release. Scientists are concerned, however, that this may reverse, resulting in a subtle acceleration in the rate of global warming. Scientists acknowledge that the concern is speculative, but see it as a viable scenario, because they know that some areas of the planet are clearly warming enough to cause climactic changes. Right now this occurs in areas where multiple factors contribute to the warming effect. This is occurring right now in the Arctic, where warming has resulted in increased melting of snow and ice. This has effects beyond the increased fresh water released by the melt, because the snow and ice reflect 85% to 90% of the sunlight received in the area back into the atmosphere, helping to keep the area cold. This cycle of…
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ramanujan, Krishna. 2002. "Rain Helps Carbon Sink." Earth Observatory, Sept. 4. Accessed via the Internet 12/2/04. <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/CarbonHydrology/>
Roach, John.2002. "Melting Arctic Bogs May Hasten Warming, Study Says." National Geographic News, Dec. 1, 2004. Accessed via the Internet 12/2/04. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1201_041201_siberian_bogs.html>
Arctic Melt Unnerves the Experts" by Andrew C. Revkin, printed in the New York Times on October 2, 2007. Its focus lies on the Arctic ice cap -- particularly, on the rapidly decreasing amount of floating ice there. It reports that during the summer of 2007, the amount of floating ice melted to "an extent unparalleled in a century or more," and that upon discovering this information, scientists were
Scientists are unable to determine the amounts of gases that will be released into the atmosphere because the early studies on permafrost melting are no longer accurate. The melting of the permafrost does not only affect the environment because of the gases that it releases, but also, because it would lead to the erosion of the Arctic coastlines. This would have a devastating impact on the industry present there and
Arctic Sovereignty Introduction to International Relations Written by: OCdt Jennifer Wotherspoon Major Brister Early 20th century explorer Vilhalmur Stefannson was correct in his assertion that the Arctic was essentially a treasure chest of natural resources, and in his corresponding prediction that the far North would become a vital national interest for Canada and the British Empire. Stefannson urged Britain, Canada and the U.S. To acquire Wrangel Island and to set up naval and air
The human causes of global warming are less certain than the eventual depletion of fossil fuels, but the damages predicted to result from uncontrolled warming brought on by fossil fuels are so great that the gamble becomes too great. Only the same intentions as listed above would take this risk with future generations. The Need for Action The ethical and social issues at work in the use of fossil fuels and
The Arctic is affected by global warming before the rest of the world because of the presence of ice and snow, and the Arctic will intensify the human consequences of global warming because of the ways ice and snow are integral to regulating Earth's surface and atmospheric temperatures. The second step in the process of global warming in the Arctic is therefore the melting of ice and snow. Due to
When frozen soil melts, carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. According to an article in New Scientist, "the northern ice cap is warming at twice the global rate and...this will lead to serious consequences for the planet," (Bhattacharya). Consequences of global warming include threats of wildlife and ecosystems in addition to rising sea levels. Data related the global warming in the Arctic is gleaned from climate modeling projects such