Permafrost is soil that has remained frozen for years under topsoil. It contains carbon-rich organic material.As rising Arctic air temperatures cause permafrost to thaw, the organic material decomposes and releases its carbon to the atmosphere in the form of the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. Permafrost in the northern Arctic was thought to be unaffected by global warming due to its extreme environment. A new NASA led study shows that it will thaw and become a permanent source of carbon to the atmosphere. The study shows that as the thawing goes on, carbon emissions over the next 300 years will be about ten times the amount of human produced fossil fuels in the year 2016. The study also showed that southerly permafrost areas will not become a source of carbon until the end of the 22nd century because arctic processes will counter the effect of thawing soil in those areas. It was a surprise that the colder region would transition faster than the warmer area. Over the course of the model simulations, northern permafrost lost about five times more carbon per century than southern permafrost because plant growth increased faster than expected in the south. During photosynthesis, plants remove carbon dioxide from the air, so increased plant growth means less carbon in the atmosphere. As the southern Arctic gets warmer, the increase in photosynthesis will balance the permafrost emissions until late 2100s.
https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2691/far-northern-permafrost-may-unleash-carbon-within-decades/
Discussion questions:
1) How does the thawing of permafrost affect you?
2) What can be done to prevent the thawing of permafrost?
3) How does the thawing of permafrost affect other organisms on the planet? What does this thawing mean for our planet?
The thawing of permafrost will continue to produce greenhouse gases, outside of emissions from fossil fuels. Climate change will be even more dramatic than it is, since the atmosphere will be getting warmer and warmer. Similar to how permafrost is melting, glaciers and ice caps will melt due to the heat that the carbon is trapping in our atmosphere. The only thing humans can do is to try to reduce carbon emissions in order to stop the permafrost from melting and releasing the additional carbon. Although it's a very tedious and hard job, mitigation by using energy efficient appliances, biking instead of walking, etc. will be the only way we can prevent even more damage to our planet. Additionally, released carbon from permafrost affects organisms that depend on a specific temperature or climate. An increase in temperature can negatively affect species that live in the water as well as crops that need a specific climate.
ReplyDeleteI believe the permafrost will continue to thaw even though we cut back on carbon dioxide emissions. The emissions will speed up the thawing but the permafrost will continue to thaw anyways. Currently, as teenagers, we can inform our parents to buy cars that do not harm the environment as much as some cars do. Additionally, we can bike and walk instead of using cars that produce carbon dioxide. If the permafrost continues to melt, it can rise global temperatures and it can affect the health of many crops.
ReplyDeleteI think the permafrost will thaw regardless of our greenhouse gas emissions an that our emissions will amplify the rate at which they thaw. I agree with Mitchell, we can start using efficient cars or even bike/walk instead. The thawing affects everybody, plants, animals, and people.
ReplyDeleteThe permafrost thawing will contribute to the greenhouse gases—on top of fossil fuel emissions. This would amplify the effects of climate change, and make them occur more rapidly. This affects the entire planet, and thus, us. At the moment, the only thing humans can do is to try to reduce carbon emissions, like Brianna said, using the methods Mitchell suggested.
ReplyDeleteThe thawing of permafrost does not only affect me, it affects everyone. The carbon emissions from the permafrost can be catastrophic, in the next 300 years the carbon emissions will be 10 times more than the amount emitted in 2016. That scientific prediction should be a wake up call for people to put more effort into conserving our atmosphere for future generations. I think the only chance of stopping the permafrost thawing out is keeping the Earth's temperature around the same area, instead of adding more and more carbon into the atmosphere, heating up the planet.
ReplyDeleteClimate change really affects everyone because we all live on Earth and share the atmosphere that is warming. However, in a more micro view, as of now, permafrost thawing isn’t really having all that much of an effect on my life. While the melting of permafrost may have contributed to climate change that changed weather patterns that caused the drought in California, it wasn’t really the cause of it, but after the late 2100s and photosynthesis no longer balances out the permafrost melting, the effects of the permafrost melting would be felt way more severely, causing the average temperature of the atmosphere to rise, melting more of the ice caps and rising sea levels, which, as someone who lives near the coast, would be disastrous. One way to stop the thawing of the permafrost that has been proposed is, according to an article by Public Radio International titled, A bold plan to slow the melt of Arctic permafrost could help reverse global warming, to introduce animals into the arctic ecosystem that compact the top layer of snow that insulates the permafrost by walking on it. These animals could be horses, oxen, or bison, and what compacting the snow does is lower the permafrost temperature and makes it less susceptible to melting. However, while this idea would work in theory, I don’t think that it is theisible because establishing animals in a new environment is not only difficult, but also potentially dangerous since the introduction could throw off the balance of the ecosystem.
ReplyDeleteScientists have often not accounted for permafrost issues due to data readings being delayed by a year, therefore resulting in little recognition of this growing issue. They are only beginning to realize that the far northern portions of the earth have warmed at twice the speed of the rest of the planet. Permafrost has reduced the maximum amounts of ice each year at the North Pole over time. In addition, permafrost thawing has led to larger competition between countries over fish supply, and has given them more of a chance to exploit those ecosystems for economic benefit. It has drastically changed the wind patterns and jet streams in the atmosphere. Somehow, the issue of thawing permafrost must be spread to the public. This has been a fresh cause of climate change that many have neglected, yet scientists have studied and proved that it is rapidly damaging our planet.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/dec/12/arctic-permafrost-sea-ice-thaw-climate-change-report
Since the thawing of permafrost emits a lot of carbon, there is no question that it will impact humans. In class, we've been learning how emission of carbon dioxide increases the effect of greenhouse gases. This means the Earth will warm and this makes water levels rise, causes droughts, and creates extreme natural disasters. People's food sources will be negatively affected or people will have to flee their homes. Since the thawing of permafrost is related to our other carbon emissions that warm the planet, it is difficult to solve. We should try to reduce carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels, but many people find it cheap and effective. It affects other organisms just as it affects us, global warming can cause some organisms to die and become extinct which is a problem for the other organisms that feed on them. Climate change due to the emission of carbon basically causes a chain reaction that affects everything on our planet.
ReplyDeleteThe melting of the permafrost will affect humans because it is releasing greenhouse gases which increase global temperature and causes extreme weather. Also, permafrost melting in Greenland will eventually mess up the currents and speed up global warming. People will end up having to leave their homes because of flooding or droughts. Animals who live in the To prevent the thermafrost from melting, we should lessen our carbon emissions by carpooling or walking or biking when we can and use less unrenewable energy.
ReplyDeleteThe thawing of permafrost does not directly affect me at this moment, however it does affect others. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, a small town on the seward peninsula of Alaska has been affected by the melting of permafrost. Shishmaref is built on permafrost along the coast of the Bering Sea, and since the climate was warmed in recent years the summer sea ice that once protected the coast has melted away, causing the permafrost to thaw out. Waves now thrash the shore line during the summer, resulting in the coastline washing away. There are ways to reduce one’s use of fossil fuels to prevent the thawing of permafrost and melting of ice in the Arctic. For example, a person could plant a tree, which would help balance the increases of CO2 in the environment, or walk instead of drive somewhere because saving a gallon of gas could help keep 20 pounds of CO2 out of the atmosphere as well. The thawing of permafrost affects other organisms habitats, their food supply and their ability to live in warming temperatures. The thawing of permafrost affects certain people and organisms in the world and if we don’t come together to solve this issue it will continue to have negative consequences.
ReplyDeleteThe carbon being released does not seem to change my actions nor appearance, but it does affect the earth. With carbon levels from 40-60 years ago, this will make our atmosphere even more suffocated. We know from the scientist that study climate change is saying that the southern parts of the hemisphere are where climate change is speeding up. Currently, earth's temperature has risen by 1 Celsius. The organisms that can be affected by this event are trees, who take in carbon and then put out oxygen into the earth, but since there is carbon being released and no trees are around. This would mean carbon is directly affecting our world. The planet already has 0.04% of Carbon emissions in the atmosphere, and they have increased since the modern times. Some things that humans can do to slow down minor effects of climate change are; carpooling, composting, and reuse clothing or items until they cant be used.
ReplyDeletePermafrost is not only affecting us, but the world that we live in. If the atmosphere is given more carbon emissions, then this would cause a lot of climate change for the poorer countries. The main people that are affected by the change on climate are the people in the global south. We aren't part of the global south, but we should do something that could help them from their adversities. In order to prevent the thawing of permafrost, countries around the world would need to cut their carbon emissions down. Countries that are affecting the atmosphere with carbon emissions the most should be the ones to cut down more. With permafrost thawing out, animals that aren't able to adapt quickly could become extinct from the climate change due to the carbon emissions. Animals wouldn't receive the right amount of food since both plants and animals would be dying and affected by the different weather conditions.
ReplyDeleteThe thawing and decay of permafrost, according to the article, dramatically increases atmospheric carbon such that over the next 300 years, "10 times as much as all human-produced fossil fuel emissions in the single year 2016" carbon will be emitted. At the same time, plant growth in the Arctic south is hindered by the permafrost thawing. Plants balance carbon dioxide emissions by consuming carbon dioxide, and they have the potential to balance the carbon being emitted by the thawing permafrost, but not until the year 2100, also according to the article. Increased atmospheric carbon dioxide contributes to the current greenhouse gas problem. We would feel the effects of this through irregular seasons, crop shortages that increase food price, loss of biodiversity, rising sea tides, etc. Like Mitchell and Ritika, I think that it's too late to stop the thawing of permafrost, but decreasing carbon dioxide emissions will slow down the rate of thawing. As for our planet and the entire biome, this could be contributing to the sixth mass extinction, and it would take the planet a long time to recover.
ReplyDeletePermafrost thawing affects everyone on earth differently, and to varying degrees, but the overall affect is that in future generations, they will live in a drastically different environment that they will have to greatly adjust to. We can't afford to just think about us, and our present state as it affects those around us now. Our action and decisions now will have a much greater impact on the generations to come, and it's selfish to only think about what can be done to help ourselves in the present. If the permafrost is able to completely thaw, disastrous amounts of carbon and methane will be released into the atmosphere, and exponentially increase the affects of climate change for future generations. Rising sea levels will have taken coastal areas underwater, estimated to take major cities by 2050, and displacing hundreds of millions of people as climate refugees. Where would these people be placed? This causes diplomatic tension and a worldwide humanitarian crisis. Agriculture and other food industries would be greatly impacted by climate change, as bees pollinate many of our crops but climate conditions would decrease their population, drought and flood would diminish our crops, and ocean acidification would greatly impact our fishing industry worldwide. To prevent this series of disastrous events from occurring, we have to unify through more agreements like Paris. Incentivizing constant action as a standard for big emitters like the U.S. might be the only way to truly get change to occur. Renewable resources should be made progressively more normalized and also cheaper than fossil fuels to make it more appealing. A harsh carbon tax should also be implemented, with certain subsidization to make it more reasonable to the public. Even just getting countries to agree that more action needs to be taken is enough to make an impact somewhere, but the more we can do to mitigate and adapt to climate change will help future generations from having to solve the problems we hand them.
ReplyDeleteThe thawing of the permafrost in the arctic is an event that just goes to show the exponential effects of climate change around the world. From the small contribution of carbon emissions into the environment, a cascade effect that occurs that makes the situation hundreds time worse. At this point, the melting of the permafrost can not be stalled due to the continual output of carbon emission into the environment. The issue that happens next is the one that has to be prevented in order to stop this drastic events from happening. The thawing of the permafrost can be seen as a possible good thing in ecological terms because it will allow more plants to grow in the arctic. While this is unnatural, it is an area that if kept in tact can be an area of undisturbed plant growth that industrialization does not touch. If this happens, there will be a significant increase in the already sparking effort to plant more plants to counter the rising amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As long as humans do not touch this area of land it can become a thriving ecosystem that can give rise to new plant species and a new environment in the world.
ReplyDeletePermafrost thawing not only directly affects the organisms around it, but everyone on earth. Though the effects may not show immediately, overtime, the changes of permafrost thawing itself will be very dramatic even without the help of all the other factors contributing to climate change. The thawing of the permafrost will help promote plant growth, though the positive affect it will have won't truly help until 2100. I believe that everyone needs to contribute in helping to stop climate change. Even doing little things like recycling & using re-usable water bottles can make a difference. In terms of bigger changes, I believe that countries should come together to create a long-lasting plan of preventing climate change from getting any worse. Working together on this is a very big deal, as it doesn't only affect one country, but the whole earth as we know it.
ReplyDeleteOur planet is in ever increasing danger as the effects of climate change increase and threaten more lives. The thawing of permafrost could increase these already darastic consequences dramatically, creating a situation that would impact countless lives. We are ill-equipped to face the dangers of climate change as it is, without any massive increases in carbon emmissions. There is little that can be done to prevent, mitigate, or reduce the effects of climate change or the melting of permafrost, only attempting to reduce our emmisions before the situation worsens beyond the point of no return, a point which many theorize that we have already passed. The thawing of permafrost, as Cameron stated, will promote plant growth in the arctic, but its positive effects will be far outstripped by its negative consequences.
ReplyDeleteThe thawing of the permafrost will only further contribute to the climbing rate of climate change. As the permafrost thaws, it will release more CO2 into the atmosphere, increasing the greenhouse effect, causing temperatures to rise. This will speed up the thawing of the permafrost even more temperature, and cause to rise exponentially. To prevent this, countries should try to reduce fossil fuel emissions as much as possible. Not only will doing this just reduce the carbon emissions made from burning fossil fuels, but it’ll also reduce the melting of the permafrost by causing temperatures not to rise even more. This is a matter that should be highly prioritized because it affects all organisms living on the planet. Many organisms are very sensitive to change in the environment, and climate change is causing many of them to go extinct. Many plants and animals offer chemicals that are used to cure disease. If the environment is protected, these species can survive, and be discovered, which could save many lives. To protect diversity and the longevity of life on the planet, the issue of climate change should be strongly addressed.
ReplyDeleteThe thawing of the Permafrost affects the ecosystem around it but further it affect all of us, the whole planet. While there may be no visible change this has a huge impact on our climate. The effect is very gradual for one to notice but over time it all adds up worsening the climate, specifically the carbon emissions. To prevents events like such we need to work together, all the nation in mitigation efforts. If the whole world doesn't see eye to eye on the problem or the solution it would make it way harder. Overall the main goal would be to decrease our carbon emissions and every small thing we do as an individual adds up to save the climate.
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