Thawing Permafrost Sending Climate Alert
Name Lu Xueke Class 08215102
CLIMATE ALERT Permafrost is thawing Arctic is degrading N2O is slowly releasing
Natural calamity Rebuild the Tibetan Plateau railway? Boomed bettles destroyed the forest in Alaska
EMBRACE CHALLENGES It is never too late to take action Recommendations
What is permafrost?
soil at or below the freezing point of water for 2 or more years
located in high latitudes
accounts for 0.022% of total water
exists in 24% of exposed land in the Northern Hemisphere
Time taken for permafrost to reach depth
Time taken for permafrost to reach depth
Time (yr) Depth (m) 1 4.44 350 79.9 3500 219.3 35,000 461.4 100,000 567.8
Melting Arctic
•Temperature have risen by up to 3°C in the past 50 years.
•Temperature will rise by a further 2 - 9°C this century.
•Animals are in danger.
Penguins lose habitat.
Polar bears kill each other
Sea lion is dying under the sun.
A new greenhouse gases (N2O)
released by thawing permafrost in Greenland
298-times more powerful than CO2
rate of nitrous oxide is low
CO2 CH4
N2O
Arctic is in a Vicious cycle
GlacierCollapse
Temperature rising
Permafrost Thawing
GreenhouseGases ,
Microorganismsreleasing
Emission of greenhouse gases
In a pothole, buried air and gas from bacteria and algae bubbled to the surface, where a midnight freeze trapped them.
Emission of CH4 from the ice in North Canada.
Natural calamity
Tibetan Plateau railway Foundation deformation
Will cost another 4,000,000,000 dollars?
Trains will aggravate the thawing
Dead spruce---victim of tiny beetles
1 million acres have succumbed to the spruce bark beetle
dead trees release greenhouse gases
Embrace challenges
【 Astonishing Data 】
Green house gases covered an area of nearly 800,000 square miles of Actic
In 2009 summer season, only 10% of Arctic sea ice was more than 2 years old
Arctic Ocean will become sea-ice free in 20 to 40 years. About 1,000,000,000 tons of green house gases will emit.
Embrace challenges
【 Astonishing Data (cont.) 】
The methane density nowadays is the highest ever since the 400,000 years
The ice ratio of the permafrost is decreasing year to year.
But it is never too late to take action.
Comparison of sea ice age at the end of winter in February 2009 (right) with the 1981-2000 average (left).
back
(a)Year-to-year changes of permafrost’s Ice ratio.
(b) soil temperature, in Layer10 for six analysis regions.
It is never too late
to take actionChina
1. lowering the relative use of energy by 14.4%
2. cut energy intensity 20% by the end of 2010
It is never too late
to take action
America
1. Stream water study detects thawing permafrost 2. a new IBM supercomputer installed by NCAR for Improved Climate and Weather Research
Do you want our Arctic Ocean to be like this?
If No…
Recommendation
1. Use less water
2. Walk more, drive less
3. Energy-efficient light bulbs
4. Eat less meat
5. Use recycle bags…………….
Top Related