Thursday, October 15, 2009

Global Warming Threatens to Upset Arctic Carbon Trapping


Quarter 1 Article 2

Global Warming Threatens to Upset Arctic Carbon Trapping


From: R. Greenway, ENN

Published October 15, 2009 06:35 AM
This article reflects how the Arctic can effect the global climate by becoming a possible source of global atmospheric carbon dioxide. This can be related to what we are learning in class because it is speaking about the climate and how a major addition of carbon dioxide will affect it.
The area that this article pertains to is the arctic circle but this can effect the entire global climate.
The article shows that the arctic and or the polar icecaps could potentially alter the Earth’s climate by becoming a possible source of global atmospheric carbon dioxide. The arctic now traps or absorbs up to 25 percent of this gas but climate change could alter that amount. Since the last ice age the arctic has been serving as a carbon sink and has contained zero to 25 percent of the global carbon sink. But the rapid rate of climate change in the Arctic, about twice that of lower latitudes, could eliminate the sink and instead, possibly make the Arctic a source of carbon dioxide.
I think that this just another reason why the we as a people should take more action when dealing with limiting our pollution rate and find greener ways to live or life's. Global Warming is a major issue and should be taken more seriously instead of several different countries. We only have one earth and we need to take care of it so that in years to come, people can go about living regular lives.
permafrost- perennially frozen subsoil; in arctic or subarctic regions