Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Monbiot: Forget the sodding polar bears

I can't help feeling that Gorgeous George is aware of the belittling of the horrors of climate change by folk such as Littledick, claiming it's all about lily-livered do-gooding lentil-munching Guardianistas wanting the fluffy polar bears to be all lovely*, and doesn't matter to anyone else.

So:

Forget the sodding polar bears: this is about all of us. As the ice disappears, the region becomes darker, which means that it absorbs more heat. A recent paper published in Geophysical Research Letters shows that the extra warming caused by disappearing sea ice penetrates 1500km inland, covering almost the entire region of continuous permafrost(4). Arctic permafrost contains twice as much carbon as the entire global atmosphere(5). It remains safe for as long as the ground stays frozen. But the melting has begun. Methane gushers are now gassing out of some places with such force that they keep the water open in Arctic lakes, through the winter(6).

The effects of melting permafrost are not incorporated into any global climate models. Runaway warming in the Arctic alone could flip the entire planet into a new climatic state. The Middle Climate could collapse faster and sooner than the grimmest forecasts proposed.

Worth a read, as ever.

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Related posts:

1. London has cold weather in winter: ARCTIC EVIL WILL KILL US!
2. Forget the blethering…
3. Climate change? Pah. It can’t be true because… er… *updated*
4. It’s only a sodding haircut
5. THAT CANNOT BE A COW