A huge fire in the Arctic: experts drama fear tables chain reaction

In the Arctic rages on, a huge fire. There are huge fires which have fatal consequences for the Permafrost and a climate of vicious circle to accelerate. Upd

A huge fire in the Arctic: experts drama fear tables chain reaction

In the Arctic rages on, a huge fire. There are huge fires which have fatal consequences for the Permafrost and a climate of vicious circle to accelerate.

Update from 18. July: The whole world is watching currently concerned to the events in the Arctic. Raging fire, record-breaking heat temperatures and the melting of the glacier show the devastating levels of climate change (see message from the 16. July below). Researchers from the NASA have found out in recent studies: It is too late! Even if the population screwed their greenhouse gas emissions, not to prevent the rise in sea levels.

scientists at the Potsdam have Now Institute for climate impact research (PIK) published a new study. There, you can make a method, with the sea-level rise could be prevented: With a trillion tons of additional snow to the unstable Arctic glacier covered in snow. This approach, however, would require, according to the researchers on the one hand, unprecedented engineering solutions and on the other hand, in the last untouched regions of the earth to intervene. The high pumps, the desalination and the warming of the sea water, as well as the operation of the snow cannons would require a quantity of electricity of the order of several tens of thousands of High-End wind turbines.

"At its core, it's about the balance, whether we want to sacrifice as mankind, Antarctica, to save the today to the inhabited coastal regions, and the resulting and the resulting cultural heritage," explains author of the study Anders levermann, PIK physicist and Columbia University in New York.

Not only in the Arctic as climate change makes itself felt. In Germany, the next Sahara heat wave is on the way. And in Portugal, more than 700 firefighters are currently fighting against devastating forest fires.

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Arctic burn is more dangerous - the vicious circle

Original article from the 16. July: satellite images show a huge fire in and around the Arctic circle is raging. Thousands of square kilometres of the peat landscape in flames. In Siberia and in North America there is a fire. The fire raging in one of the most remote regions on our planet, but they have an impact on the whole world, as the science magazine spektrum.de reported.

It can be just hardly estimate how many fires actually burn, but the number in the past few months, is enormous. 350 of these fires were counted in Alaska.

fire in the Arctic - this is Why 2019 is so unusual

The peat soils in the Arctic burn, especially in the summer months, quite quickly. Each year, the fire North of the Arctic circle break out between July and August. You are part of the normal cycle in the Ecosystem. This year, the peat fires are according to the experts, however, particularly. In June, large areas have been in flames, as spiegel.de reported. Also, the expansion of the fires was unusual.

"The recent fires in terms of their duration and intensity is unusual," said Mark Parrington by the European centre for medium-range weather forecasts (ECMWF) to spiegel.de.

The reason: This year, a heat wave is looking for the Region. In some Parts it was ten degrees warmer than usual. Alaska In June is entered as the warmest in history, reported weather authorities. Since the beginning of the records, the average temperature was for the first time, just under 16 degrees Celsius. At the same time it was particularly dry. Then Alaska with the temperature broke through 30 degrees all the records.

Arctic burn: fire puts tons of carbon dioxide i.e. Co2 - free

50 million tons of carbon dioxide (Co2) were alone in the area of fire in June released. As much as a medium-sized industrial nation blows in a whole year, so spektrum.de in the atmosphere. In the first days of July 31 million tonnes of Co2 have been estimated to inform Mark Parrington via Twitter.

Particularly sensitive, a further aspect is in the view of the experts: The area fires are a danger to the permafrost soil. The warmer and drier the Arctic, it is likely to have peat layers burn. Burned surfaces absorb more sunlight than unburned soils. The soil warms up faster. Researchers observed soils and the thawing of permafrost. On top of that, there is this effect where the smoke and soot settles on snow and ice. Snow-covered areas will melt, instead of reflecting the light from the sun and the earth heats up there again. The peat fires are a result of climate change, more frequent and seem to accelerate this - a threatening vicious circle.

> The sea level is rising next Problem: sea level rise in the Arctic of 2.2 millimeters per year

to the North of Greenland, Canada and Alaska within the so-called Beaufort gyre the sea, however, increased in 22 years by more than ten centimetres, twice as much as in the Arctic as a whole. The average increase in the Arctic was 2.2 millimetres a year, which is below the global average of approximately three millimetres per year, as the Team in the journal "Remote Sensing" writes.

map of Germany: If the sea level rises by 66 meters

In September of this year, an Asteroid could hit the earth. Now of up to 50 meters large chunks of rock rushes by on the welfare of our planet. However, an expert is a worrying forecast for the year 2023.

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Date Of Update: 24 July 2019, 12:00
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