We’d like our Tundra back. We’re asking nicely.
UPDATE:
Mystery Tundra person has come forward. see post above, and comment below.
We’d like our Tundra back. We’re asking nicely.
UPDATE:
Mystery Tundra person has come forward. see post above, and comment below.
Love the photo … where did it come from?
not sure, I came across it un-sourced at another blog.
A friend of mine is studying climate science in Holland. She’s preparing her PhD about carbon gas emissions in the Russian Tundra where she’s doing some field work. They are measuring an increasing rise of CO2 due to melting ice there. But the worst of the carbon gases released en masse in the Russian Tundra is Methane!
We already have opened Pandora’s box. The question is: Have we reached the tipping point already?
My own personal take is that we have reached *A* tipping point.
That means two things. The first is that we should, at this point, expect things to continue getting worse for the rest of our lives. Probably longer.
That is NOT to say that we can’t survive it, and do so with an intact, if radically different civilization, complete with modern technology, and so on.
We have the technology to do that, and once we have a dispersed renewable energy infrastructure, we’ll be far more resilient, and able to deal with the wide array of climate disasters headed our way.
I firmly believe it’s doable.
The second thing I mean when I say that we have reached *A* tipping point is that there are others.
It can always get worse.
Right now, it seems likely that the arctic will release all of its methane. It also seems likely that the benthic methane hydrate/clathrate deposits will be released too.
It’s going to be a very screwy world, and probably for a few thousand years (longer if humans aren’t around).
That said, if those things happen, AND we burn all the fossil fuels to hand, we COULD hit another tipping point – one at which all the water on the planet evaporates in a TRULY cataclysmic feedback loop, and basically broils the place till it looks like Venus.
I also think that is avoidable.
At the same time as we are looking for ways to get off of fossil fuels, we (by “we” I mean humans. I’m doing education and fiction writing) are developing ways, aside from tree planting, to pull carbon out of the atmosphere. That’s why I say the world will be screwy for thousands of years unless humans are around. If we ARE around, then you can bet your bottom dollar (or yuan, or whatever we’re using by then) that as soon as everybody stops denying reality (those that WILL stop) and starts taking action, we’ll also be taking action to sequester carbon, and try to pull things back to where they were.
So I’d say that yes, we’ve reached “the” tipping point most people talk about, and no, we’re not totally screwed yet.
I really ought to start blogging again so I don’t ramble on in other people’s comment sections >.>
would like to hear more about this work if she publishes
Somehow I don’t think that Occupy the Tundra will be as popular. I do like how Bill McKibben is getting involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement.
I read an item about tundra emissions — can’t recall the source — saying that carbon sequestration from accelerated growth would exceed the effects of melting permafrost for a few decades, after which emissions from melting would grow rapidly. This is not to deny the existence of such emissions, but to compare them with the countervailing phenomenon of increased growth rates due to a longer growing season in the Arctic. This actually makes it even more dangerous — the effect won’t become serious until it is much too late to do anything about it.
I love the photo. I’d love to see a whole bunch of similar ideas (occupy the garbage dump, occupy the barn, occupy the forest, occupy the mudflats, etc) except that, despite its humor, the idea does satirize a movement that is having salutary effects.
I’m the woman in this photo. Here is my comment that went with the post: I’m wearing a muskox neck warmer (that is not a beard on my face). The dogs are rescues. The tundra is outside of Bethel, Alaska. The day is chill. The sentiment is solid. Find your spot. Occupy it. Even if it is only your own mind. Keep this going…
Can’t thank you enough for speaking up.
Thanks for a truly great photo, Diane!
Diane’s enduring passion and humor are obvious. From an LA Times story…
“For those who ask about the [permanent fund dividend] that all Alaskans receive [based on oil revenues], I got mine and donated it to Greenpeace on behalf of Glenn Beck,” she (Diane McEachern) wrote. “To the suggestion I set myself on fire …I AM on fire!”
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/bethel-occupy-the-tundra-facebook.html