Melting permafrost being ignored at climate talks, experts warn

Dec. 30, 2011: For thousands of years, permafrost has trapped Siberia's carbon-rich soil, a compost of Ice Age plant and animal remains. But global warming is melting the permafrost and exposing the soil, causing highly flammable methane to seep out. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.

All the back and forth over climate change negotiations hasn't dealt with a looming problem: melting permafrost could account for more than a third of all warming emissions by 2100, experts warned Tuesday, and yet nations haven't factored it into reduction targets.

"Permafrost is one of the keys to the planet’s future because it contains large stores of frozen organic matter that, if thawed and released into the atmosphere, would amplify current global warming," U.N. Environment Program Director Achim Steiner said in announcing the report by top permafrost scientists.

"Continuing to ignore the challenges of warming permafrost" is not an option, he added.


The report was released as nations gather in Doha, Qatar, this week for the latest round of climate treaty talks that aim to limit warming by the year 2100 to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial temperatures.

"Permafrost has begun to thaw," lead author Kevin Schaefer, a researcher at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder, told a news conference in Doha.

"Permafrost emissions could ultimately account for up to 39 percent of total (greenhouse gas) emissions," he warned. "This must be factored into treaty negotiations ... or we risk overshooting the 2 degrees Celsius maximum warming target."

Permafrost, defined as ground that stays frozen for at least two years in a row, stores vast quantities of carbon dioxide and methane, both gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect warming the Earth.

United Nations Environment Program

This map shows one scenario of permafrost melt using climate models. The scenario shows a nearly 59 percent loss in near-surface permafrost by 2100.

Widespread thaw would create a vicious circle, since the release of more CO2 and methane would trap more heat in the air and in turn accelerate the melting. That, in turn, could bring an irreversible, runaway effect. 

The experts predicted an irreversible loss of between 30 and 85 percent of permafrost near the surface. That was based on a forecast of Arctic temperatures rising by 6 degrees C (10.8 F) through 2100.

The permafrost report follows reports by the World Bank and the U.N. Environment Program warning that rising world greenhouse gas emissions, even without permafrost contributions, were on track to push up temperatures well beyond 2 degrees C by 2100. 

At Doha, nations are negotiating around extending the Kyoto Protocol — a legally-binding emissions cap that expires this year. 

Many rich countries such as Japan, Russia and Canada have refused to endorse an extension and want a completely new treaty. The United States was the lone industrialized country not to join the original pact in 1997 because it did not include other big emitters like China. 

The frozen ground that covers the top of the world has been thawing rapidly over the last three decades. But there is cause for concern beyond the far north, because the carbon released from thawing permafrost could raise global temeratures even higher. NBC's Anne Thompson reports for "Changing Planet," produced by NBC Learn in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Japan insists it would be better to focus on a new treaty by 2015.

"Only developed countries are legally bound by the Kyoto Protocol and their emissions are only 26 percent," Masahiko Horie, speaking for the Japanese delegation, said in Doha. "If we continue the same, only one quarter of the world is legally bound and three quarters of countries are not bound at all."

Related story: Rich-poor split persists at climate talks

But developing countries like Brazil are warning that it will be difficult for poor nations to do their part if they continue watching industrialized nations shy away from legally-binding pacts like Kyoto. 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

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The planet's well-being doesn't really matter when your plan is to kill off 90% of the population... The ruling class doesn't care at all. rising temperatures, crazy storms, drought, floods, etc only impact the serfs.

  • 5 votes
#1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:08 PM EST

The rich alone will survive in their bomb shelters......

    #1.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:17 PM EST

    Well, killing off about 90% of the population is probably the only way we can reduce Carbon emissions enough to avert a complete disaster.

    The human population is way beyond the Earth's natural carrying capacity. We've extended that capacity by coming up with new farming methods, clearing more forests so we have a place to live, damming and diverting rivers to provide water, etc... But all those things have an environmental impact.

    The day is going to come where it's time to pay the piper and it isn't going to be pretty.

    • 16 votes
    #1.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:35 PM EST

    But after you delete 90% of the population, who is going to take all the nuclear reactors off line. You can't just turn off the lights and lock the door.

    We've definitely painted ourselves into a corner on that one.

    • 3 votes
    #1.3 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:41 PM EST

    More2bites they will have no chance either

    • 3 votes
    #1.4 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:57 PM EST

    ..so who gets to choose the 10% that get to live I wonder?..

    ...so casually do we talk of the death of 5 billion people...it's almost frightening really.

    I agree with Scubasteve that we as a species will be paying the piper real soon. TPD has good points too.

    On further thought, it will most likely be all those lucky bastards on the nuclear powered subs that will survive....hope they have a plan when they surface and the world is cooking.

    I have to say though that I don't think in the end it will matter as much who has the money as it will where one is located. It most likely will not happen all at once. It will most likely be a series of catastrophies to end in a total failure of the entire life supportting systems. I'm betting he who can find the deepest cave and enough food to sustain will make up the surviving 10%.

    • 3 votes
    #1.5 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:01 PM EST

    Has there been any discussion of HAARP and climate control at these climate change talks?

      #1.6 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:31 PM EST

      Don't worry about the 10% who gets to live. Their lives will be short lived when all the diseases from the dead bodies get going.

      Me thinks I'd rather die in some quicker fashion (Atomic blast?) than have to wait around for days to months to die from some horrible black plague epidemic. After all 90% of the worlds population is a heck of a lot of dead bodies polluting the water and fields where they will lay.

      • 2 votes
      #1.7 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:18 PM EST

      Surely you people have more pressing things to worry about!

        #1.8 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:34 PM EST

        it will be very interesting to find out what virus is being held in check for the last 10 thousand years by the frozen frost.

        • 4 votes
        #1.9 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:35 PM EST
        Comment author avatarGary 420Expand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

        Those of us that understand science will tell you that the permafrost contains peat, grasses, maybe dead animals that were all ABOVE GROUND WHEN THE EARTH WAS WARMER!!!!!

        That's right, the earth was warmer and there was tundra way up north. An Ice Age came along and froze all the stuff and now it is getting warmer and the ice and frost will melt. A real scientist will tell you this cycle has been repeated countless times. And it is being repeated now.

        Al Gore with all his power cannot stop the age old cycle of the planet from occuring.

        • 1 vote
        #1.10 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:25 PM EST

        Troy1101 - we won't chose who survives, it will be a random act by Mother Nature.

        Make no mistake - she will fix what we have broken - and she won't care who or how many or even if any of us survive.

        Our arrogance and stupidity - a very bad combination I might add - have brought us to this point.

        • 3 votes
        #1.11 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:52 PM EST

        Gary the "old cycle" BS won't cut it dude. This isn't a 8,000 year cycle. It's 8,000 years in 50 years, but don't believe the climate scientists, yeah the ones that discovered the natural cycles.

        The cause is humans.. Too many in conjunction with using fossil fuels.

        • 7 votes
        #1.12 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:40 PM EST

        The problem is many on here do not seem to realize that they are trying to debate something that is not a subject for debate. The lights on that debate are out and everyone has gone home.

        1) There has not been a serious discussion about global warming in the scientific community in around forty years. Around 97% of all climatologists are in agreement that the Earth is warming abnormally fast, that there is no natural cyclic or one-time event that can explain it, and the warming is man-made with direct correlations between warming and the smount of fossil fuel being used.

        2) Until around 18-20 years ago there was a debate on whether a "tipping point" had been reached or if the situation was so far advanced and out of control that no meaningful intervention can prevent future catastrophic meterological events. The consensus, again around 97%, is that the tipping point was passed, likely in the mid-1980's.

        3) The ONLY debate in the scientific community has been in accounting for every BTU of the warming. The key to this is the warming of the oceans. We actually know more about the surface of Mars than we know about the oceans. But scientists have been able to crosswalk warming and acidification to the point that each set of data tends to confirm the other. And it looks like the oceans' ability to mitigate CO2 is starting to give out.

        4) Now all the scientific dabate is about methane. There is enough naturally-produced methane to be a problem. That is fixable to some degree. But locked up in permafrost and in undersea hydrates, there are quintillions of tons of methane. Methane is 20-40 times as bad a greenhouse gas as CO/CO2. And as the permafrost thaws sand the seas warm, the mathane is released into the atmosphere. And warming accelerates far beyond anyone's imagination.

        And it is a tough future to face. Climatologists have been consistently wrong about the speed of global warming. The warming change is coming much more rapidly than they have predicted --- far more quickly. And as methane is reeased by warming, even that pace will quicken exponentially.

        The Pentagon, for example, classifies global warming as the most important extant military threat. They expect massive world-wide unrest as people compete for increasingly scarce food and water. And already the US Navy is spending billions of dollars just trying to keep naval bases operational. Even now, much of what is going on in the Middle East has to do with claims over rapidly diminishing water supplies.

        • 8 votes
        #1.13 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:08 PM EST

        @Gary 420 - A little too much 420.

        • 3 votes
        #1.14 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:14 PM EST

        This is a pissing contest between countries, with nobody really willing to put the planet first and try their best to protect the planet and all who live here. Soon the game will be over and it will be too late.

        • 4 votes
        #1.15 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:29 PM EST

        Chris,

        I just add that to a whole other host of subjects that aren't open for debate, such as Bengazi.

        Climate change is only a theory. Treating it at an absolute is giving it far more credit than it is due.

          #1.16 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:20 PM EST

          Wait until the next "plague" hits modern day society.

          These pandemic disease outbreaks occur, on average, every 80 years or so. They basically skip every other generation. There's a very long explanation our historical geography teacher got into in college regarding this, but I forget most of it.

          We are about 15 years overdue for the next "cycle" to hit. The last one was the 1918 flu pandemic, a third of the world was infected, and about 10% of the infected died. That was when it took people weeks to travel from coast to coast, and even longer to traverse the Atlantic.

          Fast forward to 2012, when you can get on a plane and be in Europe in 6 hours. You can get on a high speed rail and go under the English Channel at 80 mph.

          One of the things that made the flu so deadly was its relatively long incubation period. Think of how many people could become infected in this day and age before anyone even had a clue what was going on, not to mention the fact the antidote would need to be tested, retested, and mass produced. You're looking at total anarchy.

            #1.17 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:31 PM EST

            DB in Akron: Sorry there is not debate about Bengahzi. 4 americans died in an old poorly-secured "What used to be" an embassy (Tripoli is the Embassy), by a unexpected attack by terrorists.

            What also has no debate, is that the current cycle of warming is not normal and not a regular cyclic event that has happened before.

            The only ones debating either is the convervative right, that won't think beyond their stack of money.

            • 5 votes
            #1.18 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:39 PM EST

            DB Akron should learn what a theory is.

            Gravity is a theory, by the way.

            • 5 votes
            #1.19 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:55 PM EST

            Gravity is indeed a theory. I detest the misunderstandings caused by the failure of the general public to know the difference between the colloquial use of "theory" (an unsupported hunch), and the scientific use of "theory" (a conceptual framework that provides a unified explanation for millions of facts and observations backed up by experimental results).

            Anybody who uses a phrase like "it's only a theory" needs a decent education.

            • 5 votes
            #1.20 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 7:40 PM EST

            do people think if you ignore it it will just go away?

            It is real.............and we deal with it now for a good outcome or we will have to deal with it later and the outcome will not be so good.............

            smart people say it is real and stupid people say it is not real if they say it is not real...............

            stupid people will be the death of us all.

            • 2 votes
            #1.21 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 8:03 PM EST
            Reply
            Comment author avatarmore2bits-4021678Expand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

            Change is natural -- get used to it.

            Trying to prevent change is stupid since it will just come back and bite you in the arse.

            • 4 votes
            Reply#2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:16 PM EST

            Except this isn't nature. It's too many humans on this planet using fossil fuels.

            • 3 votes
            #2.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:43 PM EST

            Gregg,

            The planet isn't here to support life, then the planet has no purpose and then life has no point either.

              #2.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:22 PM EST

              DB

              In fact both are true

              Too bad!

                #2.3 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:33 PM EST
                Reply

                It's hard to fight climate change when a significant portion of the population refuses to even admit that it is a problem.

                It kind of reminds me of an aunt of mine. She believed that she never needed to work a day in her life because God would provide for her. In a way I guess she was proven right when the judge granted mental disability for her belief. She even got a priest to testify on her behalf. Granted she died a few years later the size of a small whale because she never did anything.

                Some people just prefer to live in ignorance than face the harsh truths of life.

                • 18 votes
                Reply#3 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:35 PM EST

                Kent -- Yeah I agree. The Dust Bowl was a crazy time that nobody wanted to deal with. Damn farmers - how were they to know there would be no rain for years? I know they caused it somehow.

                • 1 vote
                #3.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:19 PM EST

                Those are the people that run for political office.

                  #3.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:32 PM EST

                  Dust Bowl just affected the US. Climate Change evidence is seen all over the world. Big Difference.

                  • 2 votes
                  #3.3 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:40 PM EST

                  @ It's all my fault - Actually is was partly their fault. At the time we didn't know about crop rotation which magnified the problem. This is different humans are changing the climate and it's only going to get hotter.

                  • 5 votes
                  #3.4 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:46 PM EST

                  Actually the Dust Bowl was caused by poor farming practices, including over-farming and lack of practices to prevent erosion. Practices that have been well-known to farmers for thousands of years.

                  The years 1934-36 were the drought years that precipitated the Dust Bowl and this drought was worldwide, not jut in the United States. But here, poor farming practices allowed such widespread soil eroson that much of the effected area has never fully recovered.

                  Unlike the issues with global warming, when farmers were taught the correct methods, they adopted them pretty much unanimously. But for a lot of them, it was just too late.

                  • 5 votes
                  #3.5 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:28 PM EST

                  Help us out and all you believers KILL YOURSELVES, the rest of us have lives to live! You Dumb ass-s!

                    #3.6 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:32 PM EST

                    Ahhh...the voice of reason.

                    It's a good thing people like this are not in power, at least not now!

                    Texas....isn't that the state that does not allow evolution to be taught in science classes?

                      #3.7 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:44 PM EST

                      Ken Burns did a documentary on the Dust Bowl. Just premier aired on PBS. Exceptionally well done. It features a number of remaining survivors telling their stories. Amazing collection of photos and film clips. They really did a great job researching this. I learned far more than I had previously known about it.

                      Something that I think was fascinating is how the politics of 75 years ago was really not so different than the politics of today. This is something that in many ways we can see repeated again and again in our history. It is if we are incapable of learning. I believe that when you get right down to it, there are basically two types of thinking. Politically we call them left and right and many think of it as some divide that is a current development. It's not. It has been around for a very long time and has very specific unique characteristics.

                      I believe the Dust Bowl actually did convert some right thinkers to left thinkers after having experienced repeated painful learning events. Some people did learn, but just decades later that previously gained knowledge was discarded. Today, we are simply waiting on the next Dust Bowl and it is coming. The region has already exhausted over half of the aquifer in the region that made "recovery" from the Dust Bowl possible. That aquifer took many thousands if not millions of years to form and it will be gone before we know it. The smart farming processes discovered and proved during the period have been for the most part discarded too.

                      I think this is some of Burns' best work and it is truly an educational experience to watch. Whatever your position on the topic of climate change or politics, I urge anyone interested in history to watch this and look at the parallels between then and today.

                      • 2 votes
                      #3.8 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:25 PM EST
                      Reply

                      It would not have anything to do with Dick Cheney?

                      • 1 vote
                      Reply#4 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:35 PM EST

                      Keep electing Democrats and Republicans into office to deal with these issues. It's obviously working out so well.

                      • 8 votes
                      Reply#5 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:44 PM EST

                      JasonH-3293571

                      You are preaching to the choir with me.

                      I have long advocated the dissolution of both parties and the citizens get to elect a person of great leadership that will do the work of the people and not be constrained to follow some party line doctrine.

                      Oh what a happy day that will be!

                      • 4 votes
                      #5.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:50 PM EST
                      Reply
                      Comment author avatarhellzbellzExpand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

                      The sky is falling, the sky is falling!

                      • 6 votes
                      Reply#6 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:49 PM EST

                      No Chicken Little aka denier its not falling just the planet is getting warmer do to and over population using fossil fuels.

                      • 3 votes
                      #6.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:49 PM EST
                      Reply
                      Comment author avatarMax^108Expand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

                      Warmer soils and climate will lead to more plant growth in the high latitude regions. The warming of the seas in the North and South have already created an unprecedented increase in fishery capacities. Not all GW will be bad.

                      • 1 vote
                      Reply#7 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:49 PM EST

                      Maybe more drought and more storms

                      • 3 votes
                      #7.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 12:59 PM EST

                      It really makes the farmers in the former corn belt happy.

                      • 3 votes
                      #7.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:05 PM EST

                      Anything we do now to affect climate change will not take effect for quite a long time. The melting of the permafrost will probably not cause any immediate die-off of 90% of the population. It will certainly cause a lot of disruption as weather becomes more severe and more unpredictable. Yes it will emit a lot of methane and CO2, but it will also support plant life again, which will absorb a portion of the CO2 and give off oxygen.

                      The main thing we need to do is to adapt in the short run while we try to reduce the causes of global warming for the future. I think there is no doubt that the amount of carbon we have been dumping into the atmosphere for the last 100 years is now having an accumulative effect. Seas will continue to rise, agricultural zones will move farther and farther north, and there will be dry areas that get more rain, and wet areas that will turn into deserts. (while I was writing this, a Bald Eagle landed in the tree outside my window. They are year-round residents now because the river is usually open. 10 years ago they would never have stayed.) Some people will win and some will lose.

                      • 2 votes
                      #7.3 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:31 PM EST

                      MAX 108 please check out the NASA site and the EPA site. GW is not good. All the details are there.

                        #7.4 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:19 PM EST

                        Why was this collapsed? Somebody's abusing the collapse function.

                          #7.5 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:34 PM EST

                          Here is an excellent article on GW effect on high latitude fisheries. And yes, that effect is decidedly POSITIVE:

                          http://www.worldfishing.net/comment-and-analysis101/analysis/Arctic-fisheries-and-global-warming

                            #7.6 - Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:26 AM EST

                            Why this thread has been collapsed? Because moderators on this site are totally biased.

                              #7.7 - Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:29 AM EST

                              I don't believe the moderators do the collapsing. I don't know how to do it and wouldn't anyway since unlike most on the right (or the far far left) I actually do believe in free speech.

                                #7.8 - Wed Nov 28, 2012 10:01 AM EST
                                Reply

                                what i don't get is why all the christians of the party supposedly of "family values" are the main ones who refuse to admit it's a problem. it's their children who will be dealing with the world of the future not mine as i don't have any and won't be having any. knowing it's your children who will deal with it if it is actually true why wouldn't you err on the side of caution and start doing something about it now?

                                • 7 votes
                                Reply#8 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:16 PM EST

                                ....but, but, but, it dudn't SAY that in the Bible.... Idealogues, the type of people that populate the red party, can't wrap their heads around GW, because there isn't part of the pre-existing "ideology". Therefore, it must be ignored and it will hopefully go away!!!!

                                • 1 vote
                                #8.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:24 PM EST

                                I was raised Catholic and all of my family members support the Climate Change theory that man is causing it with CO2 admissions. Not all Catholics are Science illiterates.

                                • 1 vote
                                #8.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 7:03 PM EST
                                Reply
                                Comment author avatarIt's all my faultExpand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

                                I say we start deciding who dies and who lives. Oh, wait Obama Care is going to do that. Cool. Now - how to get China/India on board.

                                • 1 vote
                                Reply#9 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:17 PM EST

                                Your avatar says a lot, about you. If the past is any indicator, Obama's likeness may well end up on Mount Rushmore. Much the same as Lincoln was despised by many and presided over a divided nation, so to is Obama.

                                • 6 votes
                                #9.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:32 PM EST

                                oh no, death panels!!!!! they're kind of like the insurance company's boards who already decided if you got care or not........oh wait, that's exactly the same thing!

                                • 5 votes
                                #9.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:32 PM EST

                                the death panel thing has been debunked so many times. if it was true, how could obama have secured so many votes from seniors? come on buddy keep it current with your conspiracy theories!

                                • 5 votes
                                #9.3 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:12 PM EST

                                hehe you guys crack me up....limbaugh's disciples are sooo cute ;)

                                  #9.4 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:59 PM EST
                                  Reply

                                  Rest assured, the One Percent will survive.

                                  The earth has reached or surpassed the "tipping" point.

                                  Turning back is not an option. Our greed will create the largest garbage dump in the solar system.

                                  All hail the cock roach!

                                  • 1 vote
                                  Reply#10 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:27 PM EST

                                  Melting permafrost being ignored at climate talks

                                  They are more worried about controlling, or who controls, the Internet.

                                  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49976029

                                    Reply#11 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:29 PM EST

                                    Melting permafrost is a time bomb that could tip the balance catastrophically the other way..But there is one possible solution, strangely enough, animal grazing the land can prevent further melting..places in Russia where it has been tried, the melting stopped and began to stabilize.

                                      Reply#12 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:30 PM EST

                                      Screwball, you go from one extreme to another, the catastrophe is unavoidable, yet grazing a few deer can alter the cycle visibly!

                                        #12.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:35 PM EST
                                        Reply

                                        If there were money to be made by stopping global warming the problem wouldn't exist. Instead, it's profitable to create more global warming. If it cost money to expel greenhouses gases there would probably be a lot less expelled.

                                        • 3 votes
                                        Reply#13 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:35 PM EST

                                        If there were money to be made by stopping global warming the problem wouldn't exist.

                                        Well OF COURSE there's money to be made from that. Why do you think all of these alternative energy companies promoting solar, wind, wave power, etc are getting funding?

                                        The technology just isn't at the point yet where it's profitable, but they're working on it. You can't seem to see beyond what you've read somewhere. 

                                        Sure, the oil companies want to make money and they won't give up easily but they're running into a lot more regulation now, when it's not being blocked by republicans, but if you were smart enough to develop a better source you could put them out of business.

                                        Riiiiight, the Illuminati would never let you get away with that, would they? You're probably already on their watch list just for making that comment.

                                        Grow up!

                                        • 1 vote
                                        #13.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:25 PM EST

                                        Love that oil addiction. God knows we shouldn’t use anything else but Oil and Natural Gas. This is why the Koch brothers spend billions to Lobby.

                                        • 1 vote
                                        #13.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:48 PM EST
                                        Reply

                                        No one seems to care whether we live or become extinct, just how much does it cost to fill up my car.

                                        The largee oil find in the Bakken field will probably hasten our demise.

                                        • 2 votes
                                        Reply#14 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:39 PM EST

                                        evolve or die! One thing is for absolute 100% certain- we, or something that became "us" lived through all the other global climate changes in the past- proof is we are here! Soooooooooooooo, I'm guessing we, or something that we changed into, will be alive well into the future regardless of the climate changes mother earth throws at us....and yes, mankind IS part of mother earth, so saying something is "man-made" does NOT alter, or enhance, its influence- it merely is describing just one segment of the whole interactions that happen on a global scale. 1st thing we need to do is STOP removing ourselves from that equation, for better or for worse!

                                        So, EVOLVE OR DIE. And that don't nesecessarily mean DNA has to change....

                                          Reply#15 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:31 PM EST

                                          We as mankind are part of the earth's ecosystem, in that I agree with. However, it's wrong to say that our actions don't alter, enhance, or influence that ecosystem, as it makes it seem that humanity is 'doing what it was made to do' without any higher thought and thus makes us no different than any other species on the planet. Last time I checked, humans were the only species on the earth that hunts for sport (which has resulted in extinctions of species, ergo unnatural) and can strip mine entire areas just to extract coal. Please tell me ONE species, other than humanity, on this planet that has had such a ripple effect on the Earth's entire ecosystem. Short answer: there isn't.

                                          We are the ones responsible for adding excess greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, some of which this world has never and would never see if not for human creation. HCFCs, CFCs, and HFCs are all synthetic (i.e. unnatural) gases that have global warming potentials ranging from ten to a thousand times greater than that of carbon dioxide, with some lasting in the atmosphere for decades and even centuries. At this point, there is no use in removing humanity from the equation, because we ARE the equation.

                                          • 2 votes
                                          #15.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:44 PM EST

                                          know what- you just fell into my argument as I described. Your trapped into the narrow vision that "we" are somehow removed as naturally occurring participants in the whole global mechanism. Man is of this earth, and hence, anything arising from man, is also of this earthly system. Doesn't matter if what we make is "good" or "bad" for the whole; it remains just one part of that whole environment.

                                          Oh, and as far as hunting for sport- ever watch a well fed cat with a mouse? Brother, if that aint "sport", what exactly is it?

                                            #15.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:01 PM EST

                                            Jeff - yes we are a naturally occurring species on the planet, and in the large scheme of things we are acting naturally. We have a high reproduction rate and can successfully exploit the eco-system to our benefit. The eco-system doesn't really care, worse things have happened in the past. The problem is, it is possible the whole system we depend on to live will crash and evolve into an eco-system we can't live in, before we can adapt.

                                            In the past other species have aggressively exhausted all their resources and have had huge population crashes. We believe we have the ability to prevent that because we can reason and plan ahead, but if we don't plan ahead, we are susceptible to a large population crash, just like any other species in the eco-system.

                                            I see a very difficult future for humanity unless we can stop our almost mindless exploitation and use of irreplaceable natural resources. We're close to running out of places to move when we have depleted what is around us. There is not another North America or South America to discover. Maybe we will come up with something when the soil is dead and the minerals are gone, but we will not make it to the next Ice Age if we don't.

                                            • 1 vote
                                            #15.3 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:27 PM EST
                                            Reply

                                            The forecast is based on the temperature rising by 6 degrees C by the year 2100? Pfff. PLENTY of time to keep living in denial!

                                            • 1 vote
                                            Reply#16 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:33 PM EST

                                            There's that dumba$$ syndrome again - you know, the one that keeps people calling those that don't fall into their way of thinking dumba$$es (AKA, deniers).

                                              #16.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:38 PM EST

                                              Sometimes they are DA. Sometimes not. But when 97% of those who actually know what they're talking about say something and ALL the data supports that contention, a denier really looks like a DA.

                                              • 5 votes
                                              #16.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:25 PM EST
                                              Reply
                                              Comment author avatarBruce-917111Expand Comment Comment collapsed by the community

                                              Global warming retreated years ago. The planet has started cooling again. These are just cycles of nature.

                                                Reply#17 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:37 PM EST

                                                Predicted by Isaac Newton and Leonhard Euber in 1755, Discovered in1891 by Seth Carlo Chandler, further explained by Milutin Milankovitch during WWI, and proven in 1976 by Hays, Imbrie & Shackleton! "Nutations, or the Earths wobble on it's axis, (Chandlers Wobble) Been occuring since 250 Million years age, with or without man, and will probably continue as long as the Planet exists, again with or without man!

                                                  #17.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:25 PM EST

                                                  Fail.

                                                  This is not a natural cycle. It is warming but a planet that is over populated with humans that are using fossil fuels.

                                                  • 3 votes
                                                  #17.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:02 PM EST

                                                  ted

                                                  the wobble has been shown not to be the factor, also the warming is orders of magnitude faster than it ever has been in the past. Orders of magnitude.

                                                  Nice try, thuogh

                                                  • 1 vote
                                                  #17.3 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:28 PM EST

                                                  Bruce wrong! Check details recorded on scatter plots NASA Climate site.

                                                  • 2 votes
                                                  #17.4 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:01 PM EST

                                                  Confuse him with facts? Please!

                                                  • 1 vote
                                                  #17.5 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:36 PM EST
                                                  Reply

                                                  The RICH NATIONS of GREED do not care one I otta about CLIMATE. It is SHORT THINKING on DAY to DAY, not about the future. When it happens and millions are dead or dieing and even then the RICH may step IN. It is not THEIR PROBLEM. But the WHO CREATED the PROBLEMS!@#$%^ SHORT MINDED FOR SURE!!!

                                                  • 1 vote
                                                  Reply#18 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:47 PM EST

                                                  I certainly hope you don't speak like you write. Otherwise those around you of sounder mind and body would lock you in a rubber room and throw away the key. You come off as a fool.

                                                  • 2 votes
                                                  #18.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:36 PM EST

                                                  What?

                                                    #18.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:53 PM EST
                                                    Reply

                                                    Well you have to figure that Russians know a thing or two about cold and ice.

                                                    The Earth as a planet will henceforward have negative balance in the energy budget which will result in the temperature drop in approximately 2014.

                                                    The onset of the deep bicentennial minimum of TSI is expected in 2042±11, that of the 19th Little Ice Age in the past 7500 years – in 2055±11.

                                                    http://nextgrandminimum.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/russians-scientist-the-next-grand-minimum/

                                                    And you have to figure that people in Norway know something about cold and ice too.

                                                    The earth is entering a cooling phase which is likely to last about 30 years and possibly longer.

                                                    http://climatesense-norpag.blogspot.com/2012/11/global-cooling-climate-and-weather.html

                                                    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/11/19/cooling-in-the-near-future/

                                                    I put more faith in the people that live up in the Arctic than I do in people that are riding the gravy train of government funded grants and studies.

                                                    http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2010/03/17/problems-with-the-permafrost/

                                                    http://notrickszone.com/2012/11/19/russian-arctic-scientist-permafrost-changes-due-to-natural-factors-its-going-to-be-colder/

                                                      Reply#19 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:08 PM EST

                                                      I put my faith in Scientists who have been studying it for 50 years. They have the degrees and tools to study it.

                                                      By the way, NASA has been monitoring our atmosphere since 1976. Guess who was President then? The Repub were really BIG on clean air and water.

                                                      • 2 votes
                                                      #19.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:43 PM EST
                                                      Reply

                                                      I think it's telling how the same people who support scientists and their "theories" on evolution over creation, are the same people who decry scientists and proof of accelerated global warming. Rose colored glasses, cherry picking etc. .

                                                      • 1 vote
                                                      Reply#20 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:15 PM EST

                                                      OMG! has anyone heard of cause and effect??? yes global warming... and the effect is??? massive expansion of our oceans, Larger tidal forces, MORE PRESSURE on the earths crust... BIGGER Volcano eruptions... more dust blocking the suns heat... ICE AGE. everyone should be worrying about FREEZING TO DEATH...

                                                      • 1 vote
                                                      Reply#21 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:16 PM EST

                                                      Please Check NASA site for climate information. It gives details per region.

                                                      • 4 votes
                                                      #21.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:03 PM EST
                                                      Reply

                                                      What will the 1% do when only the 1% survive ? Who will take care of them ? All of the serfs will be dead and there will be no one to cater to their every whim .

                                                        Reply#22 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:20 PM EST

                                                        could the methane maybe be edible so that we could convert it to a food source to feed the population that you guys hate so much?

                                                          Reply#23 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:59 PM EST

                                                          And how would you liberal idiots suggest we stop the permafrost melting without you trying to take away my money? Tell you what. You get India, CHina, Brazil and Japan to agree to stop manufacturing and then we can talk. You idiots have always tried to reduce our nation to purely an agricultural nation with no industry. Stay the hell out of my wallet, your answer to every problem

                                                            Reply#24 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:02 PM EST

                                                            my girlfriend needs birth control though... can't you just loosen up your purse-strings a little bit more to help us out?

                                                              #24.1 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:36 PM EST

                                                              Ah, alan, your bitterness is as sweet as honey!

                                                              And your stupidity keeps it from being too runny.

                                                              By the way, you wii god damned well open your wallet to pay what the government deems that you owe, or you can take your chances with jail. 

                                                              You'd probably be happier in Somalia anyway... there are no taxes and no handouts there at all. You can get a fully-auto AK for $25, and if your neighbor is a lib you can kill him without anyone caring. Sounds like heaven, huh, dipsh!t?

                                                              • 8 votes
                                                              #24.2 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:58 PM EST

                                                              Yeah, your wallet is more important than the earth. Typical republican! Live in a fantasy that you actually are solely responsible for your own existence and well being.

                                                              What good is your wallet when there's nothing to buy?

                                                              • 4 votes
                                                              #24.3 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 5:37 PM EST

                                                              Alan It doesn't have to cost. It can actually save with new tech. We built an E-star home with Geothermal, drought tolerant landscape and fuel efficient cars. It does cost me much at all to keep it 72 degrees all year round. MIT is working on a new liquid battery with 12 hours service. This will make solar look really good. One of my neighbors put in solar and he is happy with it.

                                                              I problem I see is China getting away with so much pollution. i don't see how they can ask us if China isn't cutting back.

                                                              And check out NASA site to learn that the rate is important. Cut back the rate of emission should see a difference.

                                                              • 2 votes
                                                              #24.4 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:14 PM EST

                                                              Alan,,, you, are the problem.

                                                              • 1 vote
                                                              #24.5 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 6:58 PM EST
                                                              Reply

                                                              GOP: "...THERE IS NO GLOBAL WARMING..."

                                                              Gee - it's nice to have leadership that like to ignore things like this - and instead focus on starting new wars and restricting a woman's right to choose instead. How comforting.

                                                              • 4 votes
                                                              Reply#25 - Tue Nov 27, 2012 4:45 PM EST
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