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Thawing Arctic accelerates global warming
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THE rising temperature on the earth is thawing the permafrost in the Arctic, causing it to release greenhouse gases that could in turn raise the temperature even higher, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned on Wednesday.
"This is very alarming," said Svein Tveitdal, managing director of GRID Arendal, a key UNEP information centre monitoring the permafrost. "The Arctic is an area where temperature changes are going to cause tremendous problems."
This is UNEP's first warning over the dangers of the melting permafrost in the Arctic.
Permafrost is land that stays frozen throughout the year and there are vast expanses of it in the Antarctic and Arctic.
Although the monitoring work of the Arctic permafrost is still in its early stage, there is evidence that the carbon, trapped in the frozen land, is starting to be set free as rising temperatures cause dead plants in the soil to decompose, said Tveitdal.
Almost one fifth of the Arctic's surface is made up of permafrost and it is estimated that 14 per cent of the world's carbon is stored in Arctic lands.
"Permafrost has acted as a carbon sink, locking away carbon and greenhouse gases like methane, for thousands of years. But this is no longer the case, and the permafrost in some areas is now beginning to give back its carbon," Tveitdal told delegates at the ongoing 21st session of the UNEP's governing council.
Soil in the Arctic is frozen to as deep as 1,000 metres, but as global temperature rises, permafrost turns into mushy, slurry-like material, he said.
The thawing permafrost is already damaging roads, buildings and other infrastructure in Greenland, parts of Russia, Canada and Norway, and the habitat of wildlife like reindeer is suffering as well, according to the scientist.
Studies by the University of Alaska indicate that temperature rise in the permafrost from minus four degrees centigrade to minus one degree decreases its ability to store the carbon by at least 70 per cent.
Tveitdal said it is urgent for governments to act to reduce the threat of climate change in the Arctic.
(Xinhua)
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