Netherlands — A recent study indicates that around 55 trillion kilograms of carbon from the earth soil could be released to the atmosphere in the form of greenhouse gasses such as CO2 and methane. Climate change and its fast pace would be the reason for the deadly phenomenon. This could happen by mid-century if real action is not taken soon.
Tom Crowther is the ecologist leading the investigation that points to these worrying conclusions, published in the December issue of Nature magazine. The findings are not a surprise since scientists have suspected the effect of climate change in the soil for decades now. Soil happens to be where the biggest bodies of carbon are stored, and a lot of scientific trials have proven that its storage capacity gets affected by the rising temperatures.
It might be a big trouble
The investigative work was made with the help of an exhaustive list of scientists and gathered information from over 49 field experiments dating from the 80s decade in the United States, Canada, Japan, China, France, and Germany.
The size of the carbon expected to be released is that of an industrialized country like the United States. The liberation of the gas would be the drastic speeding up of a natural process. At the moment, human-related activity produces 17 percent fewer emissions than the climate change threat.
The location where the damage would be greatest is the artic area, which according to Tom Crowther, is commonly left out of the previous investigations he took as a reference to his.’
Temperature increasing is credited as a factor that accelerates activity underground, something that might turn into the loss of gigantic carbon stocks built over decades and decades.
It is a multi-layered issue
Researchers have established a margin of extra emissions between 12 percent and 17 percent for CO2 emissions, remarking the plant-growth consequence it would have
“Now that this longstanding scientific query has been answered, at last, we should adjust international climate models accordingly, and do this as quickly as possible. The same goes for policy.” Crowther said in the same Nature issue.
Widespread immigrations are among the consequences this all would have, especially in poor communities like those living on livelihoods intrinsically linked to the land. The sea is at a risk of accelerated rise as well.
On the publishing, it is also remarked that temperatures will increase by 1C by 2050. The United Nations, Green Peace and The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are already beginning to explore the research work whose efforts took place between the Yale Climate & Energy Institute and the Netherlands Institute of Ecology.
The investigation got the support of Prof. Ivan Janssens, from the Antwerp University, considered commonly one of the godfathers in the global change ecology, who said the data brought a whole new perspective to the efforts being made.
Not everything is on the tense side as investigators speculate that the increase in CO2 might be scientifically adjusted to help vegetation grow in large proportions and timing and that there is progress already with that subject.
Tom Crowther made headlines also by pronouncing on new U.S. president Donald Trump skeptical position on climate change, saying it’s a catastrophe that the new head of a nation considered a global force would make this assumption, in particular on the point of no return that we are. The biology expert also indicated than even though global warming effects are impossible to reverse, they could indeed be stopped.
Dr. Crowther also made emphasis on the fact that we can avoid warming above 2C and that if not, we will reach a point of no return and will probably exceed 5C. Jonathan Sanderman, another researcher involved in the investigation, explained in more depth the critical stage of the matter by focusing on the emission of carbon not being counterbalanced by new uptake of carbon by plants. That would exacerbate climate change thus increasing urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately
“This information will be critical as we strive to understand how the climate is going to change in the future. And it will also be critical if we are to generate meaningful strategies to fight against it.” said the 30 years old, Cardiff University Ph.D. graduate originally from North Wales on an interview with The Independent.
He also went on to compare the lack of accuracy regarding the measurement of the damage that would be caused to those resulting from a person being rolled over by a bus, where any doctor could make an exact diagnosis right away.
Source: Science Daily