Alaskan Wildfires Could Trigger 'Runaway Climate Change'

Alaskan Wildfires Could Trigger 'Runaway Climate Change'

news.yahoo.com

Severe Alaskan wildfires have released much more carbon than was stored by the region's forests over the past 10 years, researchers report today. They warned that the pattern could lead to a "runaway climate change scenario" where larger, more intense fires release more greenhouse gases that, in turn, lead to more warming.

The northern wildfires burn peatlands that consist of decaying plant litter, moss and organic matter in the soil, said Merritt Turetsky, an ecologist at the University of Guelph in Canada and lead author of a new study. Such fires have a huge impact given that the peat

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well there is always more than one way to skin a cat, and when it comes to keeping Global Warming a viable issue it appears that is the case.

This article based on a study conducted by a Canadian University seems to be time to present to a major meeting of U.N. and National Delegates in Cancun Mexico discussing “Climate Initiatives”.

This study though is attempting to pin rising sea levels that are degrading Alaska’s coastline from polar icecap runoff from melting caused by global warming due to massive forest fires in the permafrost regions of the earth that include large carbon deposits in the peat.

It’s kind of ironic that those who are thinking ‘green’ are now prepared to literally blame the ‘green’ itself for global warming.


news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Well it is friggin' cold in Anchorage right now, I can tell you that.

reply to post by MGriff


This is to be expected. However it's cold in Miami right now and there is something wrong with that!

Global warming???

I don't think so.

Thanks for posting.

I heard Sarah Palin started it when she was trying to start a fire with 2 stick in her new wilderness show.

She's working with Gore!

over here at the tree nursery it is normal to burn a lot of lets say "stuff" to save young plants from freezing the next day. This is only done if the temperature falls bellow the expected mark of around 2°C the local effect is only +1°C but good enough not to reach -1°C

reply to post by shr4n


I know here in Florida they have a wide variety of heaters they use but they sometimes use misters and water to keep enough running off the leaves or fruit at all times to keep it and them from being able to freeze.

In the lower 48 states "Controlled Burns" are staged reguarly to keep too much under brush from accumulating and leading to an uncontrolled massive forest fire.

Maybe they ought to consider this in perma frost areas?

It reads as if I'm misbehav'n myself with my personal opinions .. if you had any idea how much tundra there is up north you could understand how underground fires burn.

No offence to the OP. But this article is nonsense.

As an Australian Aboriginal, I can say with all certainty that forest/bush fires are meant to happen and man should not stand in their way.

The climate was doing just fine dealing with forest fires before man showed up. And it will be doing just fine long after we are gone.

It's sheer folly and more damaging to try and control them, or even worse try to make sure they don't happen at all.

reply to post by belial259


Well sadly this is the Western World's way trying to harness, dominate and outsmart nature. I agree it's pretty futile, and is likely more harmful than good, but it's all profit driven, and designed for control.

Hopefully we will get that one of these days, but I don't think it's going to be any day soon.

Thanks for sharing.

It seems we can't get away from these scientists with all their theorys that the msm prints for propaganda. If they print it it must be true right? The mother earth is going through a change and we are not the cause. We might contribute at a small level but the solar tempertures are rising all through this solar system. The powers that controll burn had better stop now it has been printed that forest fires are the new and latest cause of the dredded global warming affect.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Sorry to here about the fire but as for the climate change the whole solar system is heating up.
They can do as many studies on carbon release or green house gasses as they want but it is just another way of imposing new taxes and rules.
The next thing they might say is the green house gasses are excaping earth and heating up everything from Mars to Pluto and they have to impose a new carbon tax and green house tax to stablize solar warming.
Its just another cash cow idea.

How can the forest release more carbon that it has stored? Where's the carbon come from if it's not already in the forest? That's like saying my engine can release more carbon than what's in the fuel tank, crankcase oil and any residual carbon in gaseous form in the air being injested by the engine... oh, I get it; they quantify it by saying "past 10 years" and there's other, older plant matter being burned along with the forest.

Oh well, if the fires don't combust it into CO2, it'll decay and turn to the more dangerous methane that's already seeping from the permafrost.

Nature has it in for itself, wouldn't you say?

Originally posted by irgust
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

Sorry to here about the fire but as for the climate change the whole solar system is heating up.
They can do as many studies on carbon release or green house gasses as they want but it is just another way of imposing new taxes and rules.
The next thing they might say is the green house gasses are excaping earth and heating up everything from Mars to Pluto and they have to impose a new carbon tax and green house tax to stablize solar warming.
Its just another cash cow idea.

Can I see the documentation concerning the entire solar system heating up?
Show me the links to that info please.

Originally posted by belial259
No offence to the OP. But this article is nonsense.

As an Australian Aboriginal, I can say with all certainty that forest/bush fires are meant to happen and man should not stand in their way.

That's true for forest fires and brush fires, but that's not what the article is about so I'm guessing you didn't read it?

news.yahoo.com...

The northern wildfires burn peatlands that consist of decaying plant litter, moss and organic matter in the soil, said Merritt Turetsky, an ecologist at the University of Guelph in Canada and lead author of a new study. Such fires have a huge impact given that the peatlands contain much of the world's soil carbon - about as much carbon as is found in the atmosphere or in the total of terrestrial biomass (plants and animals).

"These findings are worrisome, because about half the world's soil carbon is locked in northern permafrost and peatland soils," Turetsky explained. "This is carbon that has accumulated in ecosystems a little bit at a time for thousands of years, but is being released very rapidly through increased burning."

It's a peat fire with thousands of years worth of carbon accumulation being released.

It may be an overly dramatic article title since I doubt all the peat will burn, but if it did the effects could be quite dramatic.

The fire-chasing researchers found that burned area has doubled in Alaska's interior over the last decade. They traveled to almost 200 forest and peatland burn sites so that they could measure how much biomass had gone up in smoke and flames, and also examined fire records dating back to the 1950s.

If the burn area doubles every 10 years, that would be very bad.

reply to post by Arbitrageur


Peat tends to burn a very long time too. I imagine getting it put out is pretty difficult as well.

It probably is not that easy to catch on fire either being permanently frozen, so that's the good news.

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
It probably is not that easy to catch on fire either being permanently frozen, so that's the good news.

Well in the past, it wasn't easy to catch fire, which is why it was able to accumulate plant matter for thousands of years. But they are pointing out that it's not as frozen as it used to be (we know glaciers are retreating etc), so that may be part of the problem, that it's a little easier to burn or start in some areas now that aren't as cold or as frozen.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


I didn't know you were in FL as well.

I'm in a more agricultural area of the state. I can assure the sprinklers were going on the strawberry fields last night. If it is cold long enough the plants will actually get encased in ice from the sprinkler spray. Very pretty in the sunrise - but a horrible waste of water and the cause of many of the sinkholes last year.

But I digress - we are talking fire

In parts of FL (and the rest of the south) we sometimes have "swamp fires". You wouldn't think a swamp can catch on fire. But, if the conditions are right, they can. You have to consider some of the swamps are very old and have 1000's of years of decaying plant matter making up the "soil".

It is basically a southern version of the peat they are talking about. When it catches fire it can be *extremely" difficult to put out. This is because it will actually burn and smolder deep underground long after all visible fire on the surface is out. This lets it flare up unexpectedly days, weeks, months or even years later in possibly a different location. Often it takes a significant period of wet weather to put them out.

I did a little research and the peat fires behave the same way and Alaska is far from alone. These peat fires happen all over the world and were the cause for much of the smog Russia had over the summer.

reply to post by Frogs


Well technically I am in the third world city state of Miami that Florida and the U.S. keep trying to lay claim too.

Those everglades fires are the worst for smoke, it hangs in the air, and there is no where to go to get away from it. If you don't turn off your air-conditioner it just sucks it right into the house.

The oils and tars in all that decaying plant life really does produce a lot of smoke and a lot of heat.

I have driven through different parts of the state when it's been on fire, and it's amazing to see how it can even jump a 6 lane interstate, as you can still see the occassional flame licking up a half burnt tree or from some hot spot of brush on either side in a charred landscape.

Had man only discovered the micro-wave first before fire!

Thanks for sharing my friend.

Climate change...blah blah...Man made...yeah blah blah!

Will they ever stop with that BS. Climate change is cyclical and cosmic. The whole Solar System is undergoing climate change as we speak...Shut the **** up Al Gore! You're a scam and fear spreader.