Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Thawing permafrost feedback will turn Arctic from carbon sink to source in the 2020s, releasing 100 billion tons of carbon by 2100

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Thawing permafrost feedback will turn Arctic from carbon sink to source in the 2020s, releasing 100 billion tons of carbon by 2100

from Climate Progress.

Countless studies make clear that global warming will release vast quantities of GHGs into the atmosphere this decade. Yet, no climate model currently incorporates the amplifying feedback from methane released by a defrosting tundra.

Now we find that this threat is worse than previously thought. A major new study by NOAA and the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) concludes that previous studies have underestimated the release of methane from the permafrost.

But, no matter. Nothing will deter the ruling classes from wasteful, destructive production and consumption in their mad pursuit of profits. Profits are to capitalists as heroin is to an addict. Heroin addicts often go to their deaths to feed their habit. I wouldn't mind if they, the capitalists perished in pursuit of their addiction, but the problem is that we working people share the same planet with them.