Is melting permafrost poses a bigger threat rather than the melting of glaciers?

Question

I have read some articles about how the melting of permafrost soil can cause damage to the environment. I have learned with those articles that melting permafrost emits methane, a greenhouse gas more powerful than carbon dioxide. My question is, why scientists concentrate more on the melting of glaciers? I only see a few scientists concentrating on melting permafrost soil.

see my source

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2006/2006-09-07-01.asp

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060907102808.htm

Which really has a bigger threat, melting glaciers or melting permafrost soil?

Answer 1

Positive feedback is just a scientific term it does not mean that the effects are something we consider to be good.

Answer 2

They are both big threats.  The melting of the permafrost will release methane gas, but melting of the glaciers is also a bad thing.  The melting of the glaciers will reduce the albedo (reflectiveness) of the earth (right now, most of the sun is reflected away by glaciers).  But as the glaciers melt, there is not as much to reflect the sun away, causing more glaciers to melt.  This is an example of a positive feedback loop (positive doesn't necessarily mean good, it just means that it causes a change to keep going in the same direction).

I'm not sure why most scientists are focusing on melting glaciers rather than the permafrost, because they are both big threats.

Answer 3

yes the melting of perma frost is bad . but also is the melting of glaciers.because of the rise water level.we are to the point that we cant stop it now but may be slow it down i hope . be prepard for it in the on coming years.

Answer 4

Yea, melting of the permafrost will cause positive feedback that will cause global warming to spiral out of control.

It's just alarmism.  Nothing like this could ever happen, as nothing like this has ever happened in the past.

Anyone can say anything about something.  It doesn't prove they're right.

Answer 5

"Nothing like this could ever happen, as nothing like this has ever happened in the past"  - - Dr. Jello

"A third possible mechanism for the Permian extinction is rapid warming and severe climatic fluctuations "

http://park.org/Canada/Museum/extinction...

"positive feedback" is not necessarily a good thing.  It is a technical term meaning no limits, runaway, out-of-control.  If the acceleration of the car makes a weight *push* the gas pedal down harder, that is positive feedback.

Negative feedback tends to restore the process to a setpoint.  When green plants take up more carbon dioxide as more becomes available, that is negative feedback to the global warming system:)  Since it tends to keep things the way they are, one might say that conservatives love negative feedback.