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ebonlockvia Rising Hegemon-
Global Warming, it's what's for dinner:
A vast expanse of western Sibera is undergoing an unprecedented thaw that could dramatically increase the rate of global warming, climate scientists warn today.
Researchers who have recently returned from the region found that an area of permafrost spanning a million square kilometres - the size of France and Germany combined - has started to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.
The area, which covers the entire sub-Arctic region of western Siberia, is the world's largest frozen peat bog and scientists fear that as it thaws, it will release billions of tonnes of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.
It is a scenario climate scientists have feared since first identifying "tipping points" - delicate thresholds where a slight rise in the Earth's temperature can cause a dramatic change in the environment that itself triggers a far greater increase in global temperatures...
...Climate scientists yesterday reacted with alarm to the finding, and warned that predictions of future global temperatures would have to be revised upwards.
"When you start messing around with these natural systems, you can end up in situations where it's unstoppable. There are no brakes you can apply," said David Viner, a senior scientist at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
"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."
And if you haven't heard of Cindy Sheehan yet, you should really check out her story. Her son died in Iraq and she's currently camped outside of the President's ranch trying to get an audience with His Highnessness all the while his minions are doing their best to smear her name. Clear Channels is actually trying to put together an anti-Sheehan picnic in the area for this express purpose. I have this tiny flicker of hope that perhaps this will be the smear campaign that ends America's passionate but ultimately self destructive affair with the neocons...
Global Warming, it's what's for dinner:
A vast expanse of western Sibera is undergoing an unprecedented thaw that could dramatically increase the rate of global warming, climate scientists warn today.
Researchers who have recently returned from the region found that an area of permafrost spanning a million square kilometres - the size of France and Germany combined - has started to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.
The area, which covers the entire sub-Arctic region of western Siberia, is the world's largest frozen peat bog and scientists fear that as it thaws, it will release billions of tonnes of methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere.
It is a scenario climate scientists have feared since first identifying "tipping points" - delicate thresholds where a slight rise in the Earth's temperature can cause a dramatic change in the environment that itself triggers a far greater increase in global temperatures...
...Climate scientists yesterday reacted with alarm to the finding, and warned that predictions of future global temperatures would have to be revised upwards.
"When you start messing around with these natural systems, you can end up in situations where it's unstoppable. There are no brakes you can apply," said David Viner, a senior scientist at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
"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."
And if you haven't heard of Cindy Sheehan yet, you should really check out her story. Her son died in Iraq and she's currently camped outside of the President's ranch trying to get an audience with His Highnessness all the while his minions are doing their best to smear her name. Clear Channels is actually trying to put together an anti-Sheehan picnic in the area for this express purpose. I have this tiny flicker of hope that perhaps this will be the smear campaign that ends America's passionate but ultimately self destructive affair with the neocons...
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Date: 2005-08-12 12:13 am (UTC)- figuring out how to end a war in Iraq where 160,000 American troops are and where nearly 1,900 have died, around 20,000 have been maimed, blinded, deafened, paralyzed, or otherwise damaged, where 1 out of every 3 soldier returning home suffers shellshock -aka- post-traumatic stress disorder and comes home a walking timebomb?
- dealing with the real concerns of a grieving mother who lost her oldest child five days after he arrived in Iraq fresh from high school, and who speaks for tens of thousands of concerned soldier's parents?
- clearing back brush from the fence in Crawford so the yard looks good before the barbecue?
*ding, ding, ding, ding!* Third ones a winner!
Bush clearly has his priorities straight
up his ass. /sarcasm