Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 09/07/2013 - 16:24
Forums
Arctic Sunlight and Microbial Interactions

Hi Mr. T,

It sounds like from reading the article that when humans started to warm the earth by burning fossil fuels, it causes the permafrost to melt in the Arctic and release even more Carbon which causes it to heat up even more. By this happening it sounds like the earth heating up is snowballing. Is there really much that can be done now that the Arctic is producing a lot of the Carbon?

Thank you,

David Berkinsky

Sun, 09/08/2013 - 14:03

Anonymous

David -
Good insight! The snowballing you're talking about is also called "positive feedback," and it's a huge concern with future warming. Once the process gets going no one knows how it's going to play out. There are other positive feedbacks in the climate system, too, which is also a worry.
- Mr. T