Earth Equity News

Carbon in World's Melting Permafrost a Ticking Time Bomb. AFP, August 24, 2008. "Climate change could release unexpectedly huge stores of carbon dioxide from Arctic soils, which would in turn fuel a vicious circle of global warming, a new study [in the British journal Nature Geoscience] warned Sunday. And according to one commentary on the research, current models… have not taken this… into account. Scientists have long known that organic carbon trapped [in the] permafrost covering one fifth of the world's land mass would, if thawed, release greenhouse gases... But until now they simply did not have a good idea of how much [was there]… Previous estimates… relied heavily on a relative handful of measurements conducted outside of the Arctic, and only to a depth of… 15.5 inches. [But this] study… [has] found that the stock of organic carbon [is]… 60% more than [thought]. This is roughly equivalent of one sixth of the entire carbon content in the atmosphere [and that's] just for North America. The size and mix of landscapes in the northern reaches of Europe and Russia are about the same, and probably contain a comparable amount... And the danger of a thaw is real."