X-Message-Number: 15582
From: "Mark Plus" <>
Subject: "U.N. Warns Global Warming Is Melting Arctic Soil"
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 08:37:46 -0800

[So much for proposals of storing cryonics patients in permafrost!]

From:

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/08/science/08reuters-arctic.htmlFebruary 8, 
2001

U.N. Warns Global Warming Is Melting Arctic Soil
By REUTERS

NAIROBI - U.N. scientists said Wednesday that global warming was melting the 
Arctic's permafrost, causing it to release greenhouse gases that could in 
turn raise temperatures even higher.

``This is very alarming,'' said Svein Tveidtal, a prominent scientist with 
the United Nations Environment Program. ``The Arctic is an area where 
temperature changes are going to cause tremendous problems.''

The vicious cycle could accelerate the so-called greenhouse effect and lead 
to the disintegration of the permafrost, causing serious damage to 
buildings, roads, pipelines and other infrastructure in Arctic areas like 
Alaska and Siberia.

Permafrost is land that stays frozen throughout the year and there are vast 
expanses of it in the Antarctic and the northernmost Arctic.

For thousands of years, the permafrost has mopped up carbon dioxide from the 
atmosphere and stored it in its soil, mainly because the decomposition of 
dead vegetation is extremely slow in such low temperatures.

However, with rising temperatures in the Arctic, microbes decompose dead 
plant matter at a higher rate, releasing carbon dioxide that then adds to 
the problem of global warming.

U.N. scientists say the vicious cycle appears to have already begun.

``There are indications that at least some parts of the Arctic have switched 
from being sinks of carbon dioxide to being sources,'' scientists monitoring 
the melting of the permafrost said in a recent report.

Tveidtal conceded that investigations were still at a very early stage but 
the consequences of global warming on the Arctic permafrost were serious, 
not just for the environment but also for human settlements.

Rising temperatures can turn the permafrost from a solid structure of frozen 
soil into a soft, slurry-like material which can lead to subsidence and 
damage to buildings and structures.

Tveidtal said the problems might also have a significant impact on Arctic 
wildlife such as its reindeer populations and the traditional lifestyles of 
indigenous people. Some 200,000 indigenous people live in Arctic Russia 
alone.



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