Comment by gmuslera
2 years ago
They focused on the water color, acidity, and the effect on the fishes, but they are not putting enough stress in the elephants in the room, the 2.4+ºC increase of average temperature northern regions over very few years (not since preindustrial times) and the massive permafrost thawing that is happening there.
Yes, it is causing this. And many more things in those regions and all the world, for more time than a single framed picture.
As a sibling pointed out, they state that as the cause.
Further, right under the image at the top of the article: "Tukpahlearik Creek in northwestern Alaska's Brooks Range runs bright orange where permafrost is thawing".
It doesn't help climate's cause to be hysterical without actually reading things you want to critique.
Yep, climate change is coming very fast across the North. It's already very noticeably different up there since I lived there from 2011-2015. Way, way warmer temperatures in the winter, the glaciers have retreated and shrunk drastically to the point I don't recognize photos of places I've spent a lot of time.
Heck, I live 2000 miles south now, and we can see our local glacier retreating yearly with our own eyes. Also it's raining today. In the middle of winter. Not good.
They literally say exactly all of that at the start of the article:
> Scientists who have studied these rusting rivers agree that the ultimate cause is climate change. Kobuk Valley National Park has warmed by 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.32 degrees Fahrenheit) since 2006 and could get another 10.2 degrees C hotter by 2100, a greater increase than projected for any other national park. The heat may already have begun to thaw 40 percent of the park's permafrost, the layer of earth just under the topsoil that normally remains frozen year-round. McPhee wanted to protect the Salmon River because humans had “not yet begun to change it.” Now, less than 50 years later, we have done just that. The last great wilderness in America, which by law is supposed to be “untrammeled by man,” is being trammeled from afar by our global emissions.
Are you suggesting that there is some kind of global warming going on?! Someone should really say something.
We got a snow storm last week, how would that be possible if the globe was warm?
No, it snowed.
Man if only we knew about it a few decades ago....
Oh wait.
Good news is it's not because of what happened to the Rio Tinto in Spain... This is ecology running its course.
Is it time that we finally addressed the massive escalation of fossil fuels by countries like china?
This line of argument tends to be a delaying tactic by those that don't want the West to do anything substantial domestically. Also China's not the country that pulled out of global climate accords.
No. China continues to increase its fossil fuel usage while fossil fuel usage in US and EU has stagnated.
I would settle for cleaning our own house and setting a good example
Fossil fuel usage in US and EU has stagnated but is increasing in China. I would say that the house is pretty tidy and waiting for major renovation - but the fact is - what ever pace of usage reduction does not counterbalance exponential usage increase.
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Why do you want to go force China to do things when we have a ton of improvement to do ourselves?
Let's imagine in simple numbers that "our" usage is 10 right now and by "tons of improvements" we could reduce it to 8. In this example China has 10 too, but is increasing its usage 10% in year and would use close to 20 after 8 years. Now how much sense would these "tons of improvements" make?
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Focus on 95% of 5% or focus on 20% of 95%? You're choosing #1.
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I don't think there are elephants in Alaska, let alone indoors, in rooms or otherwise.
we have mammoths and mastodons, but most of them are not available until thawed from the permafrost