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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Thursday, August 11, 2005

The tipping point?

I have no idea about this, but it's BBC so it's probably pretty accurate. The thing we tend to forget is that the climatic system is just soooooo complicated. Historically, it does tend to stabilize over time, but it's time (5000 years) is very different from my time (35 years left.)

The world's largest frozen peat bog is melting, which could speed the rate of global warming, New Scientist reports.

The huge expanse of western Siberia is thawing for the first time since its formation, 11,000 years ago.

The area, which is the size of France and Germany combined, could release billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

This could potentially act as a tipping point, causing global warming to snowball, scientists fear. ....

Western Siberia has warmed faster than almost anywhere on the planet, with average temperatures increasing by about 3C in the last 40 years.

The warming is believed to be due to a combination of man-made climate change, a cyclical atmospheric phenomenon known as the Arctic oscillation and feedbacks caused by melting ice. ....

"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."



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