permafrost

"Subsea permafrost is losing its ability to be an impermeable cap," Natalia Shakhova, a scientist at the University of Fairbanks, Alaska, said in a statement.

A Confession 2010

Beyond affecting the humans and wildlife that call the area home, the Arctic's warmer temperatures and decreases in permafrost, snow cover, glaciers and sea ice also have wide-ranging consequences for the physical and biological systems in other parts of the world.

Arctic is warming, NOAA report says Juliet Eilperin 2010

"Beyond affecting the humans and wildlife that call the area home, the Arctic's warmer temperatures and decreases in permafrost, snow cover, glaciers and sea ice also have wide-ranging consequences for the physical and biological systems in other parts of the world," NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco said in a statement.

Sea Ice Melting as Arctic Temperature Rises Cassandra Sweet 2010

The temperature in the permafrost is rising in Alaska, northwest Canada, Siberia and Northern Europe.

Sea Ice Melting As Arctic Temperature Rises AP 2010

Such sorting, together with longer term permafrost degradation, movement of soils on slopes, and displacement by moving compacted snow and ice, exerts strong forces on plant roots.

Arctic environments north of the treeline 2009

Brad Arnold says: • There is an estimated 400 billion tons of methane trapped in permafrost ice. • An estimated 50% of surface permafrost will melt by 2050, and 90% by 2100. • Methane is more than 20 times as strong a greenhouse gas as CO2-the sudden release of just 35 billion tons of methane would be like doubling the CO2 in the air.

Think Progress » How The National Review Bastardizes James Hansen’s Global Warming Research 2006

Brad Arnold says: • There is an estimated 400 billion tons of methane trapped in permafrost ice. • An estimated 50% of surface permafrost will melt by 2050, and 90% by 2100. • Methane is more than 20 times as strong a greenhouse gas as CO2-the sudden release of just 35 billion tons of methane would be like doubling the CO2 in the air.

Think Progress » Bush Brags He Kept Campaign Promise on Global Warming, Forgets Pledge To Regulate CO2 2006

The “flip-side” of having large amounts of methane gas gradually escape the Arctic’s thawing permafrost is that some of it could eventually be harnessed to generate electricity.

links for 2008-04-06 « Skid Roche 2008

This isn’t so preposterious a senario, because there is an est. 400 billion tons of methane locked up in permafrost ice, and an est. 10,000 billion tons of methane locked up in the ocean bottom.

Think Progress » Ask Obama and Daschle about global warming. 2006

I am from Alaska where the permafrost is now melting (” perma” frost – it never melts – but wait? huh? never? well the permafrost is melting now!) – something my grandparents (who also lived in Alaska) never saw in there lifetimes.

Think Progress » Global Warming Skeptics Engage In Denial And Spin Over New Academy Report; Gore Responds 2006