Symphony of Science: An Unbroken Thread

This video clip uses the words of Sir David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, and Carl Sagan: “An Unbroken Thread.”

Global warming projections: way worse than we thought

The permafrost, which holds lot of frozen vegetation and keeps it from decaying and contributing to atmospheric CO₂, will melt enough to kick into a positive feedback of warming and melting.

NSIDC bombshell: Thawing permafrost feedback will turn Arctic from carbon sink to source in the 2020s, releasing 100 billion tons of carbon by 2100.

Figure:  Carbon emission (in billions of tons of carbon a year) from thawing permafrost.

The thaw and release of carbon currently frozen in permafrost will increase atmospheric CO₂ concentrations and amplify surface warming to initiate a positive permafrost carbon feedback (PCF) on climate…. [Our] estimate may be low because it does not account for amplified surface warming due to the PCF itself….  We predict that the PCF will change the arctic from a carbon sink to a source after the mid-2020s and is strong enough to cancel 42–88% of the total global land sink. The thaw and decay of permafrost carbon is irreversible and accounting for the PCF will require larger reductions in fossil fuel emissions to reach a target atmospheric CO₂ concentration.

This could triple atmospheric CO₂. Translation: we’re screwed.

Random quotation

“Overheard” on a T-shirt:

What part of
Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn
don’t you understand?