<story><title>Climate change has turned permafrost into a carbon emitter</title><url>https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/permafrost-climate-change-1.5330144</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rgbrenner</author><text>Here are a few:&lt;p&gt;increased temp &amp;gt; increased evaporation &amp;gt; increased cloud coverage which reflects more sunlight&lt;p&gt;increased co2 &amp;gt; increased tree growth&lt;p&gt;increased co2 &amp;gt; increased algae, plankton growth to absorb co2... other marine animals will also feed on these, increasing their mass, and when they die, they&amp;#x27;ll sink to the bottom, where they&amp;#x27;ll mostly remain.&lt;p&gt;increased co2 &amp;gt; increased diffusion into seawater.. clams, oysters, etc combine this carbon with calcium to produce shells.. and when they die, they accumulate on the sea floor eventually turning into rock.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, the fact that co2 in the atmosphere is growing indicates we&amp;#x27;re overwhelming these.. I take zero comfort in the fact that these exists.. it actually makes me nervous because once they reach their maximum, co2 will start growing even more rapidly.. and then it&amp;#x27;ll be so much worse.</text></item><item><author>the_gastropod</author><text>And then the whole melting of sea ice thing. Sea ice is pretty much the whitest&amp;#x2F;most reflective surface on the planet. It then melts into the darkest&amp;#x2F;most absorbent surface on the planet.&lt;p&gt;Are there any stabilizing forces we know about? I only ever hear about these types of positive feedback loops, and it scares the hell out of me.</text></item><item><author>blueyes</author><text>I believe this same dynamic will apply to the oceans as they warm. They&amp;#x27;re like a can of Coke. Heat it up and the carbonation goes away. It&amp;#x27;s a horrifying positive feedback loop of global warming.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>themgt</author><text>Not only is CO2 continuing to rise, but it&amp;#x27;s rate of growth appears to be accelerating, from ~1.5ppm&amp;#x2F;year in the 80s&amp;#x2F;90s to 2ppm&amp;#x2F;year earlier this decade and now as much as 2.5-3ppm&amp;#x2F;year average now.&lt;p&gt;If this continues, we&amp;#x27;ll hit 420ppm within a couple years, 430ppm maybe 4 years after that, over 440ppm if not nearing 450ppm by the end of the 2020s with no slowdown in sight.&lt;p&gt;Truly, truly alarming.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk&amp;#x2F;carl&amp;#x2F;words&amp;#x2F;carbon.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;mlg.eng.cam.ac.uk&amp;#x2F;carl&amp;#x2F;words&amp;#x2F;carbon.html&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Climate change has turned permafrost into a carbon emitter</title><url>https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/permafrost-climate-change-1.5330144</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>rgbrenner</author><text>Here are a few:&lt;p&gt;increased temp &amp;gt; increased evaporation &amp;gt; increased cloud coverage which reflects more sunlight&lt;p&gt;increased co2 &amp;gt; increased tree growth&lt;p&gt;increased co2 &amp;gt; increased algae, plankton growth to absorb co2... other marine animals will also feed on these, increasing their mass, and when they die, they&amp;#x27;ll sink to the bottom, where they&amp;#x27;ll mostly remain.&lt;p&gt;increased co2 &amp;gt; increased diffusion into seawater.. clams, oysters, etc combine this carbon with calcium to produce shells.. and when they die, they accumulate on the sea floor eventually turning into rock.&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, the fact that co2 in the atmosphere is growing indicates we&amp;#x27;re overwhelming these.. I take zero comfort in the fact that these exists.. it actually makes me nervous because once they reach their maximum, co2 will start growing even more rapidly.. and then it&amp;#x27;ll be so much worse.</text></item><item><author>the_gastropod</author><text>And then the whole melting of sea ice thing. Sea ice is pretty much the whitest&amp;#x2F;most reflective surface on the planet. It then melts into the darkest&amp;#x2F;most absorbent surface on the planet.&lt;p&gt;Are there any stabilizing forces we know about? I only ever hear about these types of positive feedback loops, and it scares the hell out of me.</text></item><item><author>blueyes</author><text>I believe this same dynamic will apply to the oceans as they warm. They&amp;#x27;re like a can of Coke. Heat it up and the carbonation goes away. It&amp;#x27;s a horrifying positive feedback loop of global warming.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pdonis</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; increased evaporation &amp;gt; increased cloud coverage which reflects more sunlight&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Also increased evaporation &amp;gt; increased latent heat transport to upper atmosphere where it can more easily escape to space. According to the numbers in Kiehl &amp;amp; Trenberth&amp;#x27;s global energy budget, total latent heat transport is about 80 W&amp;#x2F;m^2, which means a 5 percent increase in it would entirely cancel out the increased radiative forcing from a doubling of CO2. This is a negative feedback that I don&amp;#x27;t see discussed much at all.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; the fact that co2 in the atmosphere is growing indicates we&amp;#x27;re overwhelming these&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;No, it doesn&amp;#x27;t, it just indicates different timescales for CO2 emissions vs. uptake.</text></comment>