Losses of soil carbon under global warming might equal U.S. emissions

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://news.yale.edu/2016/11/30/losses-soil-carbon-under-global-warming-might-equal-us-emissions

[font face=Serif][font size=5] Losses of soil carbon under global warming might equal U.S. emissions[/font]

By Kevin Dennehy | November 30, 2016

[font size=3]For decades scientists have speculated that rising global temperatures might alter the ability of soils to store carbon, potentially releasing huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and triggering runaway climate change. Yet thousands of studies worldwide have produced mixed signals on whether this storage capacity will actually decrease — or even increase — as the planet warms.

It turns out scientists might have been looking in the wrong places.

A new Yale-led study in the journal Nature finds that warming will drive the loss of at least 55 trillion kilograms of carbon from the soil by mid-century, or about 17% more than the projected emissions due to human-related activities during that period. That would be roughly the equivalent of adding to the planet another industrialized country the size of the United States.

Critically, the researchers found that carbon losses will be greatest in the world’s colder places, at high latitudes, locations that had largely been missing from previous research. In those regions, massive stocks of carbon have built up over thousands of years and slow microbial activity has kept them relatively secure.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature20150

And that, my friends, is a feedback…

[femmedem]

1. The Washington Post just ran an article on this as well, with this alarming quote:

"...The paper then extrapolated these findings for the globe, finding that by the year 2050, the planet could see 55 billion tons of carbon (which converts to 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide, were it all to be released in this form) released from soils. That’s if we continue on with a “business as usual” scenario of global greenhouse gas emissions and accompanying warming.

“It’s of the same order of magnitude as having an extra U.S. on the planet,” said Crowther. The world has less than 1,000 billion tons of carbon dioxide remaining to emit in order to preserve a reasonable chance of holding the planet’s warming below 2 degrees Celsius, a widely embraced target, so soil emissions could help to bust the carbon budget..."

More at link.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. Im glad the Washington Post picked it up

This is really vitally important stuff, and, yet, you wouldn’t get that impression from the news.

[femmedem]

3. Yes, I was shocked to see it in a major newspaper.

I wonder if Trump's election and his climate change denial is scaring them into getting the story out.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Jeff Bezos may have something to do with it

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/11/30/457900449/bill-gates-and-other-billionaires-pledge-to-take-on-climate-change

However, the Washington Post already had a decent record of reporting on climate issues.