The burning of fossil fuels is the primary culprit behind global warming and worldwide air pollution. Much of the world suffers from the increasing heat. People are getting angry that nothing is being done. They hear about the world and oceans getting warmer. Terrible hurricanes, floods, severe snow storms, floods and droughts have made people more aware of the dangers of global warming.
What is being done to stem the tide of global warming? Some bills have been passed. Obama steadily attempts to accomplish more. It is not clear with the GOP controlled Congress how much will get accomplished during the next two years. But most of what is being done is woefully insufficient. We need one million windmills or erecting 10 or 20 or 50 square miles of solar panels. Those acts alone could supply much of the energy needs of the entire country?
Such large scale programs are necessary to fight the increasing cause of greenhouse gases. Many elements, such as the melting of the permafrost that is releasing incredible amounts of CO2 and Methane into the atmosphere, have not been adequately factored into the statistics of global warming increases. Methane is being produced from the breakdown of organic material on ocean floors and the thawing of the permafrost peat bogs in Greenland, the Arctic and Western Siberia is rapidly accelerating. The permafrost is also starting to melt in Eastern Siberia. Hundreds of new lakes are being formed in the middle of previously solid frozen permafrost. Many of the new lakes are bubbling violently, even in the winter, when they'd normally freeze over. And those bubbles are methane gas. The accelerated melting of the permafrost peat bogs is for now a frightening unknown in the increasing global warming that is radically changing our future.
More important is trying to determine how rapidly weather is changing. The permafrost is melting in Alaska and Greenland at an alarming pace. Cracks are developing in many structures as the solid permafrost becomes soft, like slurry. Back in 2001 at Nairobi, at a major scientific conference on global warming, the dangers of permafrost melting were carefully spelled out. Roads and homes were already cracking then.
Like most governments worldwide the US ignored it. What is in store for the world as this melting intensifies? Some have felt that the melting of the permafrost is the death knell of this world. Methane is being released into the air at such alarming rates it boggles the mind.
The amount of methane that will be released as the peat bogs melts is almost beyond belief. 500 billion tons. And there's another 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide. The latest estimates are higher, some 1500 billion tons of carbon dioxide and methane combined. To get an idea how much that is keep in mind that there's only 1,000 billions tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now. Add to these figures that methane is 21 or 22 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. Imagining what this will do to global warming?
And unfortunately much of these emissions will enter the atmosphere since the ocean is becoming saturated and rain forests are being cut down. The southern ocean around the Antarctica, once a major carbon sink, has already reached its saturation level. That alone will accelerate the amount of carbon dioxide heading into the atmosphere.
And the worse case scenario that may occur as the greenhouse gases are released and the world gets warmer is acceleration of the release of more methane and carbon dioxide from the thawing permafrost. If global warming is not reversed quickly a runaway irreversible climate change may occur. In other words a vicious cycle may begin that can't be changed by anything that we do. The evidence that the earth is getting warmer is clearly manifested as we see the glaciers disappearing, the oceans getting warmer and the icebergs breaking off and melting. The urgency to control global warming is self-evident.
If you are deeply concerned for the future of our planet, read "Rescue," a novel, that focuses on the increasing dangers to earth as global warming and worldwide pollution sweep the world. It offers solutions to the immense crisis that faces us.
What is being done to stem the tide of global warming? Some bills have been passed. Obama steadily attempts to accomplish more. It is not clear with the GOP controlled Congress how much will get accomplished during the next two years. But most of what is being done is woefully insufficient. We need one million windmills or erecting 10 or 20 or 50 square miles of solar panels. Those acts alone could supply much of the energy needs of the entire country?
Such large scale programs are necessary to fight the increasing cause of greenhouse gases. Many elements, such as the melting of the permafrost that is releasing incredible amounts of CO2 and Methane into the atmosphere, have not been adequately factored into the statistics of global warming increases. Methane is being produced from the breakdown of organic material on ocean floors and the thawing of the permafrost peat bogs in Greenland, the Arctic and Western Siberia is rapidly accelerating. The permafrost is also starting to melt in Eastern Siberia. Hundreds of new lakes are being formed in the middle of previously solid frozen permafrost. Many of the new lakes are bubbling violently, even in the winter, when they'd normally freeze over. And those bubbles are methane gas. The accelerated melting of the permafrost peat bogs is for now a frightening unknown in the increasing global warming that is radically changing our future.
More important is trying to determine how rapidly weather is changing. The permafrost is melting in Alaska and Greenland at an alarming pace. Cracks are developing in many structures as the solid permafrost becomes soft, like slurry. Back in 2001 at Nairobi, at a major scientific conference on global warming, the dangers of permafrost melting were carefully spelled out. Roads and homes were already cracking then.
Like most governments worldwide the US ignored it. What is in store for the world as this melting intensifies? Some have felt that the melting of the permafrost is the death knell of this world. Methane is being released into the air at such alarming rates it boggles the mind.
The amount of methane that will be released as the peat bogs melts is almost beyond belief. 500 billion tons. And there's another 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide. The latest estimates are higher, some 1500 billion tons of carbon dioxide and methane combined. To get an idea how much that is keep in mind that there's only 1,000 billions tons of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now. Add to these figures that methane is 21 or 22 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. Imagining what this will do to global warming?
And unfortunately much of these emissions will enter the atmosphere since the ocean is becoming saturated and rain forests are being cut down. The southern ocean around the Antarctica, once a major carbon sink, has already reached its saturation level. That alone will accelerate the amount of carbon dioxide heading into the atmosphere.
And the worse case scenario that may occur as the greenhouse gases are released and the world gets warmer is acceleration of the release of more methane and carbon dioxide from the thawing permafrost. If global warming is not reversed quickly a runaway irreversible climate change may occur. In other words a vicious cycle may begin that can't be changed by anything that we do. The evidence that the earth is getting warmer is clearly manifested as we see the glaciers disappearing, the oceans getting warmer and the icebergs breaking off and melting. The urgency to control global warming is self-evident.
If you are deeply concerned for the future of our planet, read "Rescue," a novel, that focuses on the increasing dangers to earth as global warming and worldwide pollution sweep the world. It offers solutions to the immense crisis that faces us.
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