CU-Boulder study indicates thawing permafrost will likely accelerate global
warming
Feb. 11, 2011
Kevin Schaefer
Up to two-thirds of Earth’s permafrost likely will disappear within the next two
hundred years because of warming temperature, unleashing vast quantities of
greenhouse gases into the atmosphere says a new study by CU-Boulder’s
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.
CUT 1 “ Our main findings are that there’s going to be will be a lot of carbon
released from permafrost in the future as it thaws out and it’s large enough
that we should account for this in global strategies to reduce fossil fuel
emissions.”
That is Kevin Schaefer, lead author of the study. Schaefer says the amount of
carbon released will equal about a half of the green house gases put into the
atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial age.
CUT 2 “We estimate that by 2200 around 190 gigatons of carbon will be
emitted from thawing permafrost. And the release of this carbon will start
sometime within the next 20 years. 190 gigatons is quite a bit of carbon. It’s
equivalent to roughly half of the total fossil fuel emissions since the dawn of
the industrial age.”
The escaping carbon comes from plant material, primarily roots trapped and
frozen in soil during the last glacial period that ended around 12,000 years
ago.
CUT 3 “Permafrost is ground or rock that’s permanently frozen – that’s frozen
all year around. It is essentially frozen dirt. If you go in your garden and take
a handful of dirt, dark brown in color, half organic matter, that’s what
permafrost looks like. “The organic matter that’s frozen is essentially plant
roots and half decayed plant material.
Schaefer says people have know for decades that a lot of carbon was frozen
in the permafrost but this is the first study to quantify how much carbon
could be rele3ased. He says it would be wise to reassess strategies to reduce
fossil fuel emissions or face a drastically warmer Earth then previously
imagined.
CUT 4 ” Well certainly if you release this carbon from the permafrost into the
atmosphere it’s going to accelerate the warming. We do not know at this
time how much acceleration we are going to see. That’s a topic of future
work.”
-CU-