Siberia is melting!

According to New Scientist, Siberia is melting - global warming figures may need to be revised higher!

As much as certain ‘world leaders’ still deny the fact global warming is going to be a problem, worrying news has been reported in New Scientist, revealing that he world’s largest frozen peat bog is melting, which could speed the rate of global warming.

The huge expanse of western Siberia is thawing for the first time since its formation, 11,000 years ago. The area, which is the size of France and Germany combined, could release billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This could potentially act as a tipping point, causing global warming to snowball, scientists fear.

The situation is an “ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming,” researcher Sergei Kirpotin, of Tomsk State University, Russia, told New Scientist magazine. The whole western Siberian sub-Arctic region has started to thaw, he added, and this “has all happened in the last three or four years”. Warming fast Western Siberia has warmed faster than almost anywhere on the planet, with average temperatures increasing by about 3C in the last 40 years.

The situation is an ecological landslide that is probably irreversible and is undoubtedly connected to climatic warming.
Researcher Sergei Kirpotin, of Tomsk State University, Russia

The warming is believed to be due to a combination of man-made climate change, a cyclical atmospheric phenomenon known as the Arctic oscillation and feedbacks caused by melting ice.

Scientists have reacted with alarm at the finding, warning that future global temperature predictions may have to be revised. “When you start messing around with these natural systems, you can end up in situations where it’s unstoppable,” David Viner, of the University of East Anglia, UK, told the Guardian newspaper. “There are no brakes you can apply.

“This is a big deal because you can’t put the permafrost back once it’s gone. The causal effect is human activity and it will ramp up temperatures even more than our emissions are doing.”

News such as this, whilst distressing to hear, serves as a timely reminder that we should ALL be doing whatever we can to reduce our ecological footprint on the world.

Sources:
BBC News Website
Friends of the Earth

Coal-Obsessed China Fuels Global Warming

A news report both on BBC TV news and their online site, broadcasts a report from the UKs chief scientist, Sir David King, who warns that “Mankind’s only hope of staving off catastrophic climate change is burying CO2 emissions underground”.

His comments come as China and India’s thirst for fuel (specifically coal) grows at a dramatic rate, to keep pace with industrial progress (sic) taking place. China, for example, is opening the equivalent of 1 coal-fired power station every 5 days according to the BBC news broadcast.

Mankind’s only hope of staving off catastrophic climate change is burying CO2 emissions underground.
Sir David King, UK’s Chief Scientist

Sir David King feels that the only way to check the amount of CO2 that is and will continue to be released by burning fossil fuels is by ‘burying’ the CO2 in massive underground carbon sinks. The idea is that the CO2 is pumped into soft, porous rock (where the rock has a non-porous layer above, such as clay). The technology to do this has been developed and is indeed already being used in some places, but the down-side is that it adds up to 15% onto the cost - is this something that nations such as China and India will readily accept?

I also wonder what the long term implications are of this underground storage. I am not a scientist, so perhaps there is little to fear, but who knows?

On an already gloomy day for the environment, I happened to read one of George Monbiot’s latest articles about Biodiesel. Far from being the saviour that many people thought (ie isn’t it great to think we could ‘grow’ diesel fuel), he warns that the production of biodiesel makes it more damaging to the environment than fossil fuels.

The reason for this, says George, is that the cheapest way of producing it is through palm oil, and that countries such as Malaysia are already devoting huge tracts of land to palm oil production. In addition to concerns that land for food production will be turned over to more lucrative biodiesel, many of the counties looking at or already in production are using ’slash and burn’ techniques on extremely sensitive land - the effects could be devastating.

Sources:
George Monbiot
BBC News

SUVs go down then up then down in USA

No, I’m not talking about the off-road capabilities of those fantastic 4×4 school run mobiles, I’m talking sales figures. With the tragic hurricanes that occured over the summer in the USA, causing fuel prices to soar, it seems that sales of SUV’s started to suffer (good americans), only later on to pick up again (bad americans):

Showing characteristic signs of short-term memory loss, the American public is apparently renewing its love affair with the SUV. When gas prices spiked to over $3 a gallon following Hurricane Katrina, demand for hybrids was in the headlines and chatter about fuel-efficiency standards was all the rage.

Now gas prices in the U.S. have fallen to an average of $2.38 a gallon, and Americans on a cheap-gas buzz are making booty calls to SUVs. Prices for used SUVs have started to rise in recent weeks, after plummeting for most of the year. And a recent survey of new-car shoppers found that 20 percent are looking at buying an SUV, up from 14 percent during the first 10 days of September. Nearly a third of these folks are considering the biggest SUVs on the market. Have some self-respect, people.

Source: Grist.org

However, in the past week, Grist have reported that sales of SUVs have generally started to fall in favour of more fuel efficient vehicles. It seems that for some people, the biggest incentive in the cash in their pocket. Oh well, whatever it takes I suppose.

Great photo in the US - caring, concerned and environmentally-aware people are starting to give the ‘middle finger salute’ to obscene SUV’s such as the Hummer (pictured) which does less than 10 mpg! For info, go to FUH2.com (not for children I hasten to add!)