Global Warming

I’m still surprised that there is debate over the effects humans are having on an overall rise in global temperature warming the Earth. Of course, with momentum behind teaching intelligent design vs. reasoned, scientific analysis and discovery in our public schools, perhaps we can just turn over this problem to a higher power to fix (sarcasm intended).

Today’s article in The New Scientist is pretty sobering. Here’s a snippet:

THE world’s largest frozen peat bog is melting. An area stretching for a million square kilometres across the permafrost of western Siberia is turning into a mass of shallow lakes as the ground melts, according to Russian researchers just back from the region.

The sudden melting of a bog the size of France and Germany combined could unleash billions of tonnes of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.

It goes on:

His colleague Karen Frey says if the bogs dry out as they warm, the methane will oxidise and escape into the air as carbon dioxide. But if the bogs remain wet, as is the case in western Siberia today, then the methane will be released straight into the atmosphere. Methane is 20 times as potent a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide. (my emphasis)

20 times more potent!?! Oh great. Just what we need: an accelerant for global warming. Though I’m not steeped in the finer points of the Kyoto Protocol which the United States has opted not to participate in, are we going to sit around and wait until there is catastrophe? Where is the sense of urgency and major investment in alternative energies? Maybe, just maybe, (and hopefully) President Bush’s signing of a massive windfall for energy companies is to spur and accelerate investment.