There's one thing I don't understand:
If permafrost melts away, then grass and other vegetation will start growing again, and that should balance the emissions, shouldn't? There are lots of cases in which CO2 is only temporarily stored, as in trees, but freezing all the forests doesn't change the global CO2 balance, it just enables you to take a snapshot of the amount of CO2 stored at one moment.

This isn't to say it isn't alarming to have the Arctic region warming up at such a rapid pace.

With so much focus on CO2, one would think that we could plant lots of trees and balance the emissions. But in the case of melting permafrost, the emissions are in the form of methane, CH4 not CO2. CH4 is supposed to be 23 times better than CO2 for trapping infrared energy - http://www.methanetomarkets.org/resources/factsheets/significance_eng.pdf.

Newly unfrozen boreal growth profiles are very slow compared to temperature regions.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119699349/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

So while some growth may take place, the overall balance will still be heavily on the emissions side.

Plants do grow in a very short period in the arctic. When they die though, the carbon didn't completely return to the atmosphere but was kept in storage until recent upturns in the arctic climate.

The area represented by the arctic (16%), even if covered by huge trees, do not equal the amount of carbon stored already.

Some figures from "the global carbon cycle", christopher field 2004, puts some things in perspective. Carbon inventories were plants 650 Gt, soils 2300 Gt, wetland soils 450 Gt. A Gt is equivalent to 1 Pg. As little as 2007, estimated cabon inventories in the permafrost were pegged at only 400 Gt, a quater of this study. Estimates for this trapped carbon are going up it seems in the studies.

So as the soil warms up and releases the carbon, mostly as methane, where will the carbon go? Large portions will become part of the ocean inventories but these are finite as are the other sinks and will be degraded as global temperatures increase as they are doing. It certainly won't compensated for by just trees, as much as people would like to think.

But CO2 is LIFE! Plants will grow more betterer and more fasterer and more elsewhererer. Warmer cold places like Canada will mean less deaths from cold! Morer and betterer crops can then be grown where it used to be cold. This is good for mankind! CO2 does not cause warming, it is only a result, since the sun is making it warm, now cold, but tomorrow warm, then cold again, way too complicated and biggerer for silly mankind to have any effect on or comprehension of.

I know all this, I read Drudge. I'm a 'tard.

"1.5 trillion tons of frozen carbon"

Combine this with all the methane and you have a tipping point where the global warming triggers a huge increase that can not be stopped.

As far as I am concerned, this IS the real deal. The arctic is warming much faster and the amount released into the atmosphere will be SO huge that we will wish we never went that far.

Wow, it's like the deniers' funding ran out...

I'm still waiting to be told why this study is invalid, inept, or paid for by AGW Global Inc.

@Nat,

Al Gore and his global cabal are fixing to steals all ur monies and ur freedoms. Obamanation will socialize all your existence and also steals all ur monies and jobs and SUVs.

Oh yea, all ur guns too.

What with all the staff trolls here - there's no room for facts. Arghhh.

"Projections show that almost all near-surface permafrost will disappear by the end of this century exposing large carbon stores to decomposition and release of greenhouse gases."

Er, you like all the IPCC "projections" that have been proven ridiculous?

"They mean projections, like in a crappy image thrown up on a wall."

Oh, okay.

Glad to see the staff trolls still on payroll;)

@Reel,

You go girl! IPCC = Bilderburgers = just bunch of socialist totalitarians fixing to steals all ur everythings! They are in league with the Knights Templar, orchestrated 9/11, falsified moon landings, and will sell all our pancreases to extraterrestrials!

I read Drudge. I'm a 'tard.

Clearly, our only hope of salvation lies in a rapid increase in research grants.

I just read this about IPCC funding cuts. Now I'm depressed:

http://tinyurl.com/mhatfh

But listening to Henry brightened up the day:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=408_1243808281&comment_order=newest_first

I read secret IPCC mission statement.

It say:

All your climate monies are belong to us!

No mention of base, but I'm sure that's next.

The only fly in the ointment is that the World is cooling not warming. So to keep up the scare, the IPCC's campaign to re-distribute the World's money, the IPCC politicians, and its political friends, expanded the theoretical harmful effects of a supposed melting.

But once again, there is no large scale mwelting but rather a large scale freezing going on, no matter how hard they bluster.

http://tamino.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/embarrassing-questions/

Speaking of true-believer Tamino, don't forget to keep an eye on his little 'bet' he proposed last year. He hasn't lost it yet, of course, but the numbers for 2008 sure weren't in his favor, and 2009 isn't really going his way, either.

http://tamino.wordpress.com/2008/01/31/you-bet/

You just don't get the whole idea of "trend lines" do you?

Quite well, actually. Graduate-level statistics is a wonderful thing.

About Carlin,

“Certain opinions were expressed by an individual [Carlin] who is not a scientist and was not part of the working group dealing with this issue,” said EPA spokesperson Adora Andy.

“Nevertheless, several of the opinions and ideas proposed by this individual were submitted to those responsible for developing the proposed endangerment finding. Additionally, his manager allowed his general views on the subject of climate change to be heard and considered inside and outside the EPA and presented at conferences and at an agency seminar. The individual was also granted a request to join a committee that organizes an ongoing climate seminar series, open to both agency and outside experts, where he has been able to invite speakers with a full range of views on climate science. The claims that his opinions were not considered or studied are entirely false.”

What Suppression?

He had a chance to express his views. That doesn't mean that personally held views get special treatment. What it means you get the ability to voice them and have them evaluated.

They were and suitably dismissed for their lack of merit. A totally justified lack of merit. The material did not meet the anyone's standard for peer reviewed material.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/06/bubkes/langswitch_lang/sp

Reel, keep going to these blogs. Especially the one with the s3x ads. It really shows the "A" class material which you use to form your opinions.

No room for facts? What, the op-ed pieces you keep bringing up are facts? When did that happen? When did the "feelings" carlin felt were facts? The fact is his feelings not the conjectures although I've got a feeling too, that his career is over but he's got a new one in the works.

Ooops... looks like the front is backwards!

"New information officer joins District Attorney staff
The DeKalb District Attorney’s office has a new spokeswoman. Adora Andy, a former journalist, took the public information officer job on Jan. 30.
She replaces Stephanie Kirijan, who is now an Assistant District Attorney assigned to Juvenile Court.
District Attorney Gwen Keyes says Andy’s strong journalism background and her diverse media relations experience make her a welcome addition to the office.
Andy, who is from Nashville, Tenn., was most recently press secretary for Congressman Harold Ford Jr.

Peer review? What peers, the Global Cabal of Knights Templar Bilderberger Socialist Extraterrestrials headed by Al Gore and Jimmy Hoffa? They say it: all your climate monies are belong to US! Fight them, protect your pancreases!

I read Drudge. I'm a 'tard.