siberia arboreal forest

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1219 belaTED</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see permafrost</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha hmmn // Brazil buffer flips to emitter?!</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b>As NYC is inundated with wildfire smoke, Rupert Murdoch’s WSJ calmly shows link to climate crisis, while Murdoch's Fox News mocks it</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WRITTEN BY JOHN WHITEHOUSE</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM SAGE HODIL</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">PUBLISHED 06/07/23&nbsp;</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>New York City is currently inundated with a hazardous level of wildfire smoke, making the skies appear yellowish-orange.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The smoke is from wildfires in Canada, which scientists say are “becoming bigger and more frequent” due to climate change, as reliably explained by Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal:</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wildfires like those ravaging Canada are becoming bigger and more frequent as forests around the world increasingly dry out amid the warming climate, many scientists say.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Some of the biggest fires are breaking out in the </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere such as most of the ones in Canada</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. That is because the Arctic region has warmed nearly four times faster than the rest of the world, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">said Carly Phillips, a Boston-based research scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the boreal areas—mostly conifer forests with long winters and short summers—of Canada and Alaska, she said th<b>e annual area burned has nearly doubled in the past 60 years, along with an increase in the frequency of large fires. Russia’s vast Siberian forests have been consumed by giant fires too. Phillips said this year’s outbreak, while unprecedented in size, is just following the trend.</b></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I don’t know if it’s a tipping point, but what this underscores is that the climate crisis is here and now,” </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Phillips said.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>The link is so obvious and uncontroversial that Journal staff members have no problems tweeting it.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>And yet, over at Murdoch’s Fox News Channel, this is just another reason for hosts to punch left, this time at frequent target Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who dared to point out that the country has work to do to adapt to the climate crisis.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>
</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video file</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Video CitationFrom the June 7, 2023, edition of of Fox News' <b>Outnumbered</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">None of this is novel. Fox News (and the Journal’s right-wing editorial board) have for years pushed climate denial on the body politic. Now that the effects of the climate crisis are impossible to miss, the network is still refusing to recalibrate.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Like the Dominion case shows, it’s not clear if Fox’s audience — or whatever is left of it — will allow the network to speak the truth.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Either way, I’d recommend that people working at Fox News headquarters in Manhattan buy some high-quality masks. They might even still have some sitting around.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">THE LATEST</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Linda Yaccarino just started as Twitter’s new CEO, but Elon Musk already destroyed the platform for advertisers</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">06/08/23 9:27 AM EDT</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">200+ things that Fox News has labeled “woke”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">06/08/23 8:58 AM EDT</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Newsmax's Greg Kelly praises the smoke from Canadian wildfires: “It's a beautiful, interesting aura”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">06/08/23 8:45 AM EDT</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sean Hannity mocks New Yorkers for wearing masks to protect themselves from wildfire smoke</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">06/07/23 9:58 PM EDT</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fox News' Jesse Watters attacks government officials for suggesting masking to protect against wildfire smoke</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">06/07/23 The Wall Street Journal</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wall Street Journal</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Climate deniers</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">climate deniersMORE</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Related</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Sean Hannity mocks New Yorkers for wearing masks to protect themselves from wildfire smoke</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">06/07/23 9:58 PM EDT</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fox News' Jesse Watters attacks government officials for suggesting masking to protect against wildfire smoke</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">06/07/23 7:59 PM EDT</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">omfg carbon AND methane bomb?!</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/understanding-the-norths-climate-change-trifecta/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/understanding-the-norths-climate-change-trifecta/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Arctic Circle became unbelievably hot on June 20. In the Russian community of Verkhoyansk, temperatures topped 38C,&nbsp;<a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/june-sees-more-global-heat-especially-arctic-siberia" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">marking what may be the highest air temperature ever recorded within the Arctic</a>.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The temperatures at Verkhoyansk are part of a larger trend across western Russia this summer, with small communities throughout the region reporting temperatures that are&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/mikarantane/status/1280900094913585152?s=20" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">smashing local records</a>&nbsp;that have stood for decades. During the latter half of June,&nbsp;<b>surface temperatures throughout western Siberia were as much as&nbsp;<a href="https://climate.copernicus.eu/arctic-siberias-unusual-warm-spell-continues" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">10C above historical</a>&nbsp;norms, marking one of the hottest Junes on record despite relatively cool temperatures at the start of the month.</b></font></p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{" tweetid="tweetId" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">For scientists the world-over these record-breaking temperatures are alarm bells, demonstrating the kind of extreme weather events we can&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/100-degrees-in-siberia-5-ways-the-extreme-arctic-heat-wave-follows-a-disturbing-pattern-141442" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">expect to see more often</a>&nbsp;if climate change continues unchecked. However, it is the long-term fallout from modern heat waves that has many northern scientists deeply concerned, as they will affect our planet for decades to come.</font></p><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The fires that follow</font></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>During heat waves surface temperatures soar, often triggering a chain of fire-promoting weather conditions including extreme thunderstorms</b>. These thunderstorms have hundreds of&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3329" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">lightning strikes that can ignite the dry soils</a>&nbsp;and vegetation that serve as fuel for fire.</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">In northern regions like the boreal biome, these fire-promoting conditions can cause large-scale wildfires that burn&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14287" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">millions of hectares of forest</a>&nbsp;in a single summer.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Historically, humanity has considered wildfire a true disaster and spent considerable resources to suppress them. We now understand that despite the initial loss of established trees and soils, wildfires are a natural and integral part of the boreal biome.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Modern wildfires, however, are occurring with increasing frequency and intensity, covering a larger area due weather events like severe heat waves. In extreme fire years, these&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1071/WF17095" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">modern wildfires can burn deep into the organic soils</a>&nbsp;that characterize boreal forests.&nbsp;<b>These carbon-rich soils have been built up over thousands of years and hold approximately&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.4155/cmt.13.77" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">30 per cent of the world's terrestrial carbon stocks</a>.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">When fires burn deep into soils or return too quickly to a forest, they lose their&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1474-y" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">“ancient carbon" stocks</a>. Instead of being held in the ground these ancient carbon reserves are combusted and released back into the atmosphere, increasing the carbon levels. The higher carbon dioxide levels generated by wildfires intensify climate change impacts like heat waves, which can lead to further wildfires, forming a powerful “positive feedback" loop with climate change.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">While these trends alone are alarming, northern researchers warn that the fallout from heat waves won't stop when the fires burn out. In northern regions where the soils historically stay frozen year-round, a&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05457-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">whole new set of changes</a>&nbsp;are beginning to take form.</font></p><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When permafrost perishes</font></h2><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Permafrost forms on the landscape when soil materials remain below freezing for two or more consecutive years. In some areas permafrost forms in direct response to a cold climate.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As one moves further south, however,&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1139/X10-060" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">permafrost becomes increasingly dependent on the presence of thick organic soils</a>, surface vegetation and a shady overstorey to survive the warm summer months. In those cases, the ecosystem acts like a giant protective blanket, limiting the sun's heat that is able to reach the frozen permafrost materials below.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Carbon-rich peat burns readily, making it good fuel for lightning-caused fires.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(U.S. National Parks Service, Western Arctic National Parklands)]</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>When permafrost ecosystems burn, the wildfire consumes these protective layers, often triggering permafrost thaw.&nbsp;</b><a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0526-0" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">This can occur gradually, with the thawed layer expanding slowly over decades, or abruptly</a>, with the thawed layer expanding dramatically over years. The land may cave in or sink, plant communities may change completely and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/landslide-creates-new-lake-in-yukon-s-kluane-national-park-1.2890258" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">local water flows may be rerouted.</a></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>In both cases, the loss of permafrost makes the massive Arctic carbon reserves more vulnerable to loss.</b> With gradual thaw microbes are able to break down and release the previously frozen carbon back to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. In contrast, abrupt thaw commonly occurs in ice-rich permafrost resulting in warmer but also wetter soils. Under these conditions decomposition still occurs but carbon is commonly returned to the atmosphere as methane, a greenhouse gas approximately&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WG1AR5_Chapter08_FINAL.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">30 times more powerful</a>&nbsp;at trapping heat than carbon dioxide.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">All this lost carbon may make the&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14338" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">positive feedback with climate change</a>&nbsp;even stronger.</span>&nbsp;While scientists are working to understand if the vegetation that grows after permafrost thaw is able to offset all the carbon released during decomposition, most current models indicate that permafrost thaw will&nbsp;<a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719903115" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ultimately be a source of atmospheric carbon</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read more:&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-frequent-fires-could-dramatically-alter-boreal-forests-and-emit-more-carbon-122355" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">More frequent fires could dramatically alter boreal forests and emit more carbon</a>]</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Researchers are coming to understand just how tightly linked these disturbances caused by climate change really are. What appears as an individual event — heat wave, forest fire or permafrost thaw — h<b>as cascading ramifications through time and space in the Arctic, potentially serving as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/seed-crystal-instructions-607654" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">seed crystal</a>&nbsp;for the next disturbance in the coming months, years or even decades that follow.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Heat waves, wildfires and permafrost thaw represent an environmental trifecta that are inherently linked and drive change in the occurrence and intensity of one another.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/catherine-dieleman-1129152" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Catherine Dieleman</a>, Research associate, Department of Integrative Biology,&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-guelph-1071" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">University of Guelph</a></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article is republished from&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Conversation</a>&nbsp;</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AMPLIFY FDBK DOOM SPIRAL</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/inferno-climate-change-fiery-apocalypse/">https://www.alternet.org/inferno-climate-change-fiery-apocalypse/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><strong>Jane Braxton Little: A Global Four-Alarm Blaze</strong></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Just over a year ago, my old friend Jane Braxton Little experienced climate change up close and personal. Greenville, California, the Gold Rush-era town she’d lived in since the 1970s (when I used to visit her there) was burned down in the raging Dixie Fire. She&nbsp;<a href="https://tomdispatch.com/the-dixie-fire-disaster-and-me/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">wrote about it</a>&nbsp;vividly at&nbsp;<em>TomDispatch</em>. For a time, she became, as she put it, a “climate refugee,” just as so many of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/10/03/hurricane-ian-housing/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the survivors</a>&nbsp;of Hurricane Ian did in Florida this fall.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Honestly, it isn’t really up for debate anymore (unless you’re in the Trumpublican Party), is it? This overheating planet of ours is growing ever more perilous right before our eyes, whether you’re talking about increasingly severe&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/15/us-west-megadrought-worst-1200-years-study" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">megadroughts</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62712301" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">floods</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.space.com/2021-record-wildfire-season-from-space" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">fires</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2022/10/13/climate-change-fueling-hurricanes-global-warming-effects-studied/8184337001/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">storms</a>, or&nbsp;<a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/himalayas-glaciers-climate-change" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">melting glaciers</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/06/greenland-ice-melt-heat-wave-summer/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">ice sheets</a>. And it’s only going to get worse as, despite everything we now know, humanity&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/26/atmospheric-levels-greenhouse-gases-record-high" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">continues to put</a>&nbsp;record amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. As it happens, the latest war on this planet, the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/world/europe/ukraine-drone-strikes-russian-bases.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">still expanding</a>&nbsp;one in Ukraine, is only making matters worse, while pouring&nbsp;<a href="https://theweek.com/energy/1017913/oil-companies-reach-record-profits-amid-russias-war-on-ukraine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">record profits</a>&nbsp;into the coffers of the giant fossil-fuel companies whose CEOs are living as if there were no tomorrow.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Of course, there will indeed be a tomorrow and another after that, even if they prove ever more perilous. When it comes to fire, as Little explains today, in its own fashion, this planet is already ablaze. As a United Nations report put it, we’re&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/climate/climate-change-un-wildfire-report.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">experiencing</a>&nbsp;“a global wildfire crisis… turning landscapes into tinderboxes.” Already reporting on climate change when the Dixie Fire hit her community, Little saw all this in a horrifying way. Now, take a step back with her and she’ll fill you in on the inferno this planet threatens to become.&nbsp;<em>Tom</em></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><strong>Inferno:&nbsp;</strong><strong>Climate Disaster Is Turning the Planet into a Tinderbox</strong></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Mike Savala’s boots scuffed the edge of a singed patch of forest littered with skinny fingers of burnt ponderosa pine needles. Nearby, an oak seedling sizzled as a yellow-shirted firefighter hit it with a stream of water. Spurts of smoke rose from blackened ground the size of a hockey rink. A 100-foot Ponderosa pine towered overhead.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">“Third response today,” said Savala, shaking his head.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">This hillside in my own backyard in California’s northern Sierra Nevada mountains hadn’t seen lightning for months and yet it had still burst into flames. All summer long, it had baked in heat that extended into an unseasonably hot autumn. Now, in late October, it was charred by a fire of mysterious origin. A spark from a wandering hiker? An errant ember from a burn pile? Spontaneous combustion?</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Savala, a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.grth.org/history" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">fire-crew boss</a>&nbsp;for the Greenville Rancheria of Maidu Indians, scanned the sky. Cloudless<b>. There had only been three inches of precipitation since July 1st — 15% of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ggweather.com/seasonal_rain.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">norma</a><a href="https://www.ggweather.com/seasonal_rain.htm." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">l</a>. And no wonder, since California is in the throes of its fourth dry year. More than 95% of the state is now&nbsp;<a href="https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?CA" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">classified</a>&nbsp;as under severe or extreme drought.</b></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Although small and easily contained, this tiny fire in rural northeastern California was another wake-up call, up close and personal, about an ominous trend. A warming planet and changing land use are fueling a dramatic surge in forest fires worldwide.&nbsp;<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Terrifying&nbsp;<a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/report/spreading-wildfire-rising-threat-extraordinary-landscape-fires" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">projections</a>&nbsp;forecast a 57% increase in extreme fires globally by century’s end. The indisputable cause: climate change.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The heating of the planet is turning landscapes into tinderboxes,” a team of 50 researchers from six continents reported in&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/report/spreading-wildfire-rising-threat-extraordinary-landscape-fires" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">“Spreading Like Wildfire</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">: The Rising Threat of Extraordinary Landscape Fires,” published this year by the United Nations Environment Program.&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">That document describes what can only be viewed as a future flaming version of planetary collapse that could push humanity perilously close to a precipice of no return.</b></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Like dozens of previous reports from the U.N. and other international organizations, it describes a situation that, while dire, isn’t yet hopeless. Despite those ever stronger, hotter, drier winds that will fan the flames, governments could slow climate change by improving their forest management techniques, planning and preparing far better, and communicating more effectively. To reduce the likelihood of future mega-fires means working with forests where fire is an element as essential to ecosystems as sunshine or rain. It also means working with forest communities, where local knowledge accumulated over generations is too often shunned. And of course, it means honestly confronting our reluctance to ween ourselves from the fossil fuels that power our factories, cars, and those absurdly unnecessary leaf blowers that are backing us toward the cliff.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><strong>A Fiery Feedback Loop</strong></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">If my small backyard fire was a personal wake-up call, the 2021 Dixie fire was a four-alarm blaze. On its rampage from the Feather River Canyon through Lassen Volcanic National Park and beyond, it&nbsp;<a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;" /><a href="https://tomdispatch.com/a-tour-guide-to-hell-on-earth-small-town-style/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">destroyed</a>&nbsp;my adopted town of Greenville, 160 miles northeast of San Francisco. In fact, it torched close to a million acres. Nearly half of them burned so intensely that the once-majestic, now blackened pine and fir forests there may never again support the biologically diverse ecosystems that drew me here so long ago.</p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">The single-largest fire in California’s history, Dixie was part of a record-breaking fire year globally. Around the world, fires burned nearly 23 million acres, an area almost the size of Portugal. Dixie contributed to the worldwide loss to fire of more than a third of the tree cover that disappeared in those 12 months, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wri.org/insights/global-trends-forest-fires?utm_campaign=wridigest&utm_source=wridigest-2022-08-23&utm_medium=email&utm_content=readmore" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">report</a>&nbsp;from the World Resources Institute. And this is only a preview of what’s to come.&nbsp;<b>Scientists believe that there may be a 30% increase in extreme fires globally by 2050.</b></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Such an acceleration of forest fires will, it seems, spare few parts of the world. Fires, burning longer and hotter, are already flaring in unexpected places, shattering assumptions about what’s safe, let alone normal. Even the Arctic, that remote expanse of sea ice, treeless permafrost, and minus 40-degree Celsius temperatures, home to polar bears, lemmings, and snowy owls, is now beginning to burn. After July 2019, the hottest month on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.noaa.gov/news/july-2019-was-hottest-month-on-record-for-planet" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="color: rgb(11, 13, 101); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">record</a>&nbsp;so far, fires erupted across the&nbsp;<b>Arctic Circle in Alaska, Greenland, and Siberia. As temperatures soared to as much as six degrees Celsius above normal, flames spurted across an expanse of tundra larger than England.</b></span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>Arctic fires are particularly worrisome because of the vast amounts of carbon locked beneath that frozen soil.</b>&nbsp;</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Much of it, after all, is peatlands, largely formed at the end of the last ice age, 12,000 years ago. Although it covers just 3% of the Earth’s surface, peat sequesters 42% of the carbon stored in all other types of vegetation, including the world’s forests</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Global warming is now drying out that peat, making it ever more susceptible to fire. As it burns, of course, it releases that carbon.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nor is such a bio-feedback loop limited to the Arctic. As the world becomes hotter and drier, the carbon we emit from our reliance on fossil fuels is drying out forests everywhere, making them ever more prone to burn, while extending burning seasons globally. Firefighters in California used to don fire-resistant Nomex shirts in May or June, knowing they could shed them by mid-October. Now, there’s barely a pause before things heat up again and those shirts go right back on.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As wildfires are transformed into year-round challenges, the carbon they release only further contributes to emissions from other sources, making it that much more difficult to halt rising temperatures. Think of it as a mutually exacerbating feedback loop: wildfires are worsened by climate change, which, in turn, is intensified by the ever-fiercer wildfires.</span></p><p style="color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Georgia, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;"><strong>Management for Better — or Worse...</strong></p></div></div></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1020 tom d records 121 LA 130 deaTH VLY</font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an all-too-literal fashion, The Donald is indeed proving to be history's "fire and fury" president.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And don't for a moment think that there was no warning about the over-the-top burning now underway in this country. After all, in 2019, parts of&nbsp;</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Australia</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;were singed to a crisp in a way never before seen, killing at least 25 humans and possibly more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/more-one-billion-animals-have-been-killed-australias-wildfires-scientist-estimates-180973926/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">a billion</a>&nbsp;animals.&nbsp;<b>And that country, too, was headed by a climate-change denier, a man who once&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/09/scott-morrison-brings-coal-to-question-time-what-fresh-idiocy-is-this" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">brought</a>&nbsp;a piece of coal to parliament and handed it around while soothingly telling other legislators, "Don't be afraid, don't be scared."</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">https://yyy.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/09/scott-morrison-brings-coal-to-question-time-what-fresh-idiocy-is-this</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;In addition, in recent years, the Arctic (of all places) has been&nbsp;</span><a href="https://www.livescience.com/zombie-wildfires-burn-arctic.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">smoking and burning</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">&nbsp;in an unprecedented fashion, heating its permafrost and releasing staggering amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Oh, and this June, the temperature in a&nbsp;</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">small town in Siberia&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/climate-new-high-temperature-heat-record-arctic-siberia-context" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">crossed</a>&nbsp;the 100-degree mark for the first time.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>By the way, Russia, too, is run by a leader who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-09-24/putin-is-finally-worried-about-climate-change" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">until recently</a>&nbsp;was a climate denier.&nbsp;</b>I mean, what is it about the urge of so many of us in such a crisis to support those dedicated to quite literally destroying this planet as a livable place for... well, us? (Hey there,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-bolsonaro-amazon-fires-climate-change-united-nations_n_5d80eaa7e4b077dcbd64bd42" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Jair Bolsonaro</a>!)</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://grist.org/climate/arctic-fires-released-more-carbon-in-two-months-than-scandinavia-will-all-year/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://grist.org/climate/arctic-fires-released-more-carbon-in-two-months-than-scandinavia-will-all-year/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">8/20</font></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A<span droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="">lmost exactly a year ago, we</span><span droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://grist.org/article/the-arctic-is-having-unprecedented-wildfires-heres-why-that-matters/" droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" inherit="inherit" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" auto="auto" border-bottom="border-bottom" rem="rem" solid="solid" transition="transition" border-color="border-color" s="s" ease-out="ease-out" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" important="important" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">reported</a><span droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="">&nbsp;</span><span droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="">that June and July wildfires in the Arctic had released as much carbon as Belgium does in an entire year — an</span><span droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/cams-monitors-unprecedented-wildfires-arctic" droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" inherit="inherit" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" auto="auto" border-bottom="border-bottom" rem="rem" solid="solid" transition="transition" border-color="border-color" s="s" ease-out="ease-out" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" important="important" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">unprecedented</a><span droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="">&nbsp;</span><span droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="">summertime burn that would amplify the region’s climate change–fueled fever. But everything, apparently, is worse in 2020, including the climate toll of</span><span droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="">&nbsp;</span><a href="https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/index.php/another-active-year-arctic-wildfires" droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" color="color" rgb="rgb" line-height="line-height" inherit="inherit" text-decoration-skip-ink="text-decoration-skip-ink" auto="auto" border-bottom="border-bottom" rem="rem" solid="solid" transition="transition" border-color="border-color" s="s" ease-out="ease-out" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" important="important" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">this year’s Arctic fires</a><span droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="">, which makes 2019 seem like a warm-up.</span></font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><p droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Data&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/m_parrington/status/1290311302859100160?s=20" style="font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126); transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">released Monday</a>&nbsp;by the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) shows that in June and July, Arctic fires released 204 megatons of carbon dioxide, far exceeding last year’s 140 megatons and eclipsing the annual emissions of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland combined. With unusually high temperatures&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/07/29/arctic-climate-change-hastens/" style="font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126); transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">continuing to bake the Arctic</a>, the flames show no immediate signs of dying down. Combined with the fact that some of this year’s fires appear to be burning into&nbsp;<a href="https://grist.org/climate/peatlands-could-become-a-climate-feedback-loop-we-definitely-dont-want-to-trigger/" style="font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126); transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">carbon-rich peat soils</a>, the ultimate climate impact of this year’s fire season could be much greater than what scientists are currently estimating.</font></p><p droid="Droid" serif="serif" cambria="Cambria" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height" text-rendering="text-rendering" optimizelegibility="optimizelegibility" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>While last year’s Arctic fires spanned both Alaska and Siberia, this year, Siberia is the definitive star of the show.</b>&nbsp;Following&nbsp;<a href="https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/june-sees-more-global-heat-especially-arctic-siberia" style="font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126); transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">months of warm weather</a>, fires began flaring up in northern Siberia around the start of May. The blazes escalated significantly in mid-June as a brutal heat wave descended on Russia’s northeastern Sakha Republic, causing the town of Verkhoyansk to sweat through the Arctic’s first-ever&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/06/what-100-degree-day-siberia-means-climate-change/" style="font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-skip-ink: auto; border-bottom: 0.0625rem solid rgb(7, 96, 126); transition: border-color 0.15s ease-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none !important;">100-degree F day</a>. By the end of the month, Arctic fires had pumped 59 megatons of carbon dioxide into the air, eclipsing the 53 megatons emitted in June 2019 and setting a new high-water mark for Arctic fire emissions in records going back to 2003.</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">sys guy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/news/150821_boreal_forests.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/news/150821_boreal_forests.html</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>...At&nbsp;</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>the same time, boreal forests are one of the ecosystems most affected by climate change, with temperatures in the arctic and boreal domains recently warming at rates as high as 0.5°C per decade, and potential future warming of 6 to 11°C over vast northern regions by 2100, according to the IPCC’s most pessimistic scenario, RCP 8.5.</b>&nbsp;</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Studies have shown that climate zones in boreal forests are moving northwards ten times faster than the trees’ ability to migrate. Warmer and drier conditions and enhanced variability of climate may have already contributed to increased extent of wildfires, and the spread of outbreaks of dangerous insects. Thawing permafrost poses threats to the hydrological system at the continental scale, as well as the potential of releasing huge amounts of CO<sub style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2</sub>&nbsp;and methane. Locally, increasing non-forestry industrial development<del style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">,&nbsp;</del>accompanied by air pollution, soil and water contamination, might reinforce the negative impacts of climate change. Overall, these factors mean that huge areas of boreal forest will be at high risk of impoverishment or change to grassland or shrubland.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“These forests evolved under cold conditions, and we do not know enough about the impacts of warming on their resilience and buffering capacity,” says Shvidenko.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the article, the researchers call for governments and societies to place greater focus on the health of boreal forests, meaning the forests’ resilience, adaptive capacity, and productivity. Transition to adaptive forest management is an urgent need for securing future sustainable development of boreal forests. They also stress the key role of monitoring and research to continuously assess the state of boreal forests and improve the understanding of feedbacks and interactions in order to decrease the risk of catastrophic tipping points, where the forests switch from being a net sink for CO<sub style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">2</sub>&nbsp;to a major source of increased greenhouse gas emissions.</font></p><div class="addthis_inline_share_toolbox_4cim" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="clear" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reference</font></b></p><p class="" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gauthier S, Bernier P, Kuuluvainen T, Shvidenko AZ, Shchepaschenko DG (2015). Boreal forest health and global change.&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Science.&nbsp;</i>21 August 2015.&nbsp;<a target="blank" class="" data-gentics-gcn-url="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6250/819.short" href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6250/819.short" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">doi:10.1126/science.aa9092</a>&nbsp;</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">..[vid]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>c</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>anada’s Northwest Territories were scorched by record-breaking wildfires in 2014. </b>The team of researchers from the United States and Canada took soil samples from more than 200 locations in the region. They found that for old forests (more than 70 years old) and forests in wet locations, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">a thick layer of organic matter in the soil protected the oldest carbon, called “legacy carbon,” that was not burned in previous cycles of burn and regrowth. However, in younger, drier forests, the shallower soil organic matter layer allowed fires to reach the legacy carbon, releasing it into the atmosphere.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As Earth’s northern regions grow warmer and drier due to climate change, fire seasons are&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms8537" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; overflow-wrap: break-word;">getting longer</a>&nbsp;and fires are becoming&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/treesearch/pubs/39646" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; overflow-wrap: break-word;">more severe</a>. Boreal forests have long been thought to absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they release into it, making them carbon “sinks.” But if bigger and more frequent fires start burning legacy carbon, these forests could start releasing more carbon than they store. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, so releasing more of it into the atmosphere could affect the balance of the global carbon cycle and contribute to climate change.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Boreal forests are located in the northernmost regions of North America, Europe and Canada, and contain spruce, fir, pine, larch, aspen and birch trees. These forests store 30 percent to 40 percent of all land-based carbon in the world, and most of that carbon is found in the soils. Soil-based carbon includes soil microbes; plant material made up of dead leaves, branches and stems; and both living and dead roots, as well as burned material from previous fires.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During intense fires, the organic material that contains the soil carbon can burn along with trees and plants. Older carbon deeper in the soil does not always burn in a fire, but can stay protected in the soil. The researchers called this “legacy carbon.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After observing the intensity of the 2014 fires, the team wondered if these pools of legacy carbon were at risk.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Carbon accumulates in these soils like tree rings, with the newest carbon at the surface and the oldest carbon at the bottom,” said senior author&nbsp;<a href="http://ecoss.nau.edu/team/michelle-mack/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Michelle Mack</a>, a professor at Northern Arizona University’s&nbsp;<a href="http://ecoss.nau.edu/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Center for Ecosystem Science and Society</a>. “We thought we could use this layering to see how far back in time, in the history of the forest, fires were burning.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The team measured the age of the trees, how deep in the soil the fire burned, how moist the sampled area was, and the depth of the topmost soil organic layer, composed of plant and animal matter. They also used radiocarbon dating of the soils to determine if the legacy carbon pools burned in the fire.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The team found that wetter forests and those less than 60 years old were more likely to contain legacy carbon than older, drier forests. But the ones most likely to lose that legacy carbon were the young forests in drier areas. These forests were less likely to have accumulated enough organic matter to protect the older carbon between previous fires and the 2014 fire. Almost half of the plots under 60 years old lost legacy carbon, while just one older plot did.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In total, <b>about 12 percent of the forests that burned in the 2014 fires met the criteria for being vulnerable to legacy carbon loss</b>. The researchers estimate that these forests released about 8.8 million tons of carbon as they burned, compared to the nearly 104 million tons released by all the fires.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The team said their results show that in order to understand the effects of future fires on Canada’s boreal forests and the global carbon cycle, researchers must account for legacy carbon loss.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“By defining and analyzing ‘legacy carbon,’ this paper offers a new way to think about long-sequestered carbon stocks in boreal forests and how vulnerable they are to being burned during increasingly frequent and severe wildfires,” said&nbsp;<a href="http://whrc.org/staff/brendan-rogers/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Brendan Rogers</a>, a scientist at&nbsp;<a href="http://whrc.org/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Woods Hole Research Center</a>&nbsp;who co-authored the&nbsp;<em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nature</em>&nbsp;study. “This tool helps us understand when burning goes ‘outside the norm’ from a historical perspective and begins to combust carbon stocks that survived past fires.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If wildfires do become more frequent, they could increase the number of young forests vulnerable to burning and legacy carbon loss, they added.</font></p><div class="column-width image_module" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 3em auto; padding: 0px; width: 837.438px; max-width: calc(600px + 15%); float: none; clear: both; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><figure class="inline_figure" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; max-width: 100%;"><figcaption style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.8em 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[The research team sampled more than 200 plots in the forests of Canada’s Northwest Territories to see whether “legacy” carbon left over from previous fire cycles was threatened by the intense 2014 fires. They found that forests less than 60 years old and located in drier climates had a higher risk of losing legacy carbon in the fires than older, wetter forests. Credit: NASA / Xanthe Walker, Center for Ecosystem Science and Society at Northern Arizona University]</font></figcaption></figure></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In older stands that burn, legacy carbon is protected by thick organic soils,” said Xanthe Walker, lead author and postdoctoral researcher at the&nbsp;<a href="http://ecoss.nau.edu/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Center for Ecosystem Science and Society</a>&nbsp;at Northern Arizona University. “But in younger stands that burn, the soil does not have time to re-accumulate after the previous fire, making legacy carbon vulnerable to burning. This pattern could shift boreal forests into a new domain of carbon cycling, where they become a carbon source instead of a sink.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA’s ABoVE campaign supports research using remote sensing, airborne measurements and field investigations to understand climate change’s impacts on Alaska and northern Canada. The Arctic is changing faster than anywhere else on Earth, and ABoVE studies track shifting coastlines, changing plant growth patterns and greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost and boreal forest fires.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 30px; overflow-wrap: break-word; width: 600px; max-width: 600px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To learn more about the Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, visit&nbsp;<a href="https://above.nasa.gov/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; overflow-wrap: break-word;">https://above.nasa.gov/</a>.</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/stories/canadas-boreal-forest-carbon-bomb-unless-we-keep-it-intact"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.nrdc.org/stories/canadas-boreal-forest-carbon-bomb-unless-we-keep-it-intact</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">$?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 27px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="CAEQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFSgAMAl6BAgBEAA" style=""><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.57;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAJegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /></font><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAJegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAJegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAJegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAJegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAJegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAJegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAJegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Climate Change & Boreal Forests | Global Forest Atlas</a></font></font></font></font></font></h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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position: absolute; right: auto; top: 12px; white-space: nowrap; z-index: 3; transition: opacity 0.218s ease 0s; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 2px 4px; left: 0px; visibility: hidden;"><ol style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;"><li class="action-menu-item ab_dropdownitem" role="menuitem" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; list-style: none; user-select: none; cursor: pointer;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:q-GmB7rha00J:https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:q-GmB7rha00J:https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests%2B%26cd%3D10%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQIDAJegQIARAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /></li></ol></div></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.57;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:q-GmB7rha00J:https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:q-GmB7rha00J:https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests%2B%26cd%3D10%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQIDAJegQIARAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:q-GmB7rha00J:https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:q-GmB7rha00J:https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests%2B%26cd%3D10%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQIDAJegQIARAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:q-GmB7rha00J:https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:q-GmB7rha00J:https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/climate-change/climate-change-boreal-forests%2B%26cd%3D10%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQIDAJegQIARAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.57; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Additionally,&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">boreal forests</span>&nbsp;themselves have the ability to impact the global&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">climate</span>&nbsp;through radiation balance and&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">carbon</span>&nbsp;cycling, leading to interconnected<wbr />&nbsp;...</font></span></a></font></font></font></font></font></div><div data-base-uri="/search" id="ed_5" data-ved="2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQ2Z0BMAl6BAgBEAY" style=""><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 27px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div data-hveid="CAMQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFSgAMAp6BAgDEAA" style=""><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.57;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAKegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /></font></font></font></font><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAKegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; 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text-decoration-line: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAKegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAKegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAKegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAKegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAKegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjAKegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Boreal Forest Fires Could Release Deep Soil Carbon ...</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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line-height: 1.57;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Dw8_udmPFVMJ:https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/+&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:Dw8_udmPFVMJ:https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/%2B%26cd%3D11%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQIDAKegQIAxAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Dw8_udmPFVMJ:https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/+&cd=11&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:Dw8_udmPFVMJ:https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2905/boreal-forest-fires-could-release-deep-soil-carbon/%2B%26cd%3D11%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQIDAKegQIAxAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.57; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span class="f" style="line-height: 1.57;">Aug 22, 2019 -&nbsp;</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Boreal forests</span>&nbsp;have long been thought to absorb more&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">carbon</span>&nbsp;from the atmosphere than they release into it, making them&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">carbon</span>&nbsp;“sinks.” But if bigger and more frequent fires start burning legacy&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">carbon</span>, these&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">forests</span>&nbsp;could start releasing more&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">carbon</span>&nbsp;than they store.</font></span></a></font></font></font></font></div><div data-base-uri="/search" id="ed_6" data-ved="2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQ2Z0BMAp6BAgDEAc"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; 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text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjALegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjALegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjALegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQFjALegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Primer On Forest Carbon - Nature United</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font><div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.57; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 1px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><cite class="iUh30 bc" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.5;">https://www.natureunited.ca › our-priorities › innovating-for-climate-change</cite></font></div><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?ei=HLz-XfiJJNvbtAbvoKQQ&q=arboreal+forest+climate+carbon&oq=arboreal+forest+climate+carbon&gs_l=psy-ab.3...43856.52878..64326...0.0..0.594.3978.0j7j2j5j0j1......0....1..gws-wiz.......0j0i22i10i30j0i22i30j33i160j33i22i29i30.IdQD78JNaao&ved=0ahUKEwj4h-2Og8jmAhXbLc0KHW8QCQIQ4dUDCAs&uact=5#" id="am-b11" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQ7B0wC3oECAUQAw" style="border-radius: 0px; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><span class="st" style="line-height: 1.57; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Nature United's&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">forest</span>&nbsp;ecologist Ronnie Drever dispels myths about how conserving Canada's&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">Boreal Forest</span>&nbsp;can be a powerful solution for&nbsp;<span style="font-weight: bold;">climate</span>&nbsp;change here&nbsp;...</font></span></a></font></font></font></font></div></div></div></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wGYm4pABMIkJ:https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/+&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:wGYm4pABMIkJ:https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/%2B%26cd%3D12%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQIDALegQIBRAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wGYm4pABMIkJ:https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/+&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:wGYm4pABMIkJ:https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/%2B%26cd%3D12%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQIDALegQIBRAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">NASA</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Permafrost Becoming a Carbon Source Instead of a Sink</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-11-19</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Arctic Shifts to a Carbon Source due to Winter Soil Emission</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-11-08</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chasing Caribou Across a Changing Arctic</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-10-17</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Warmer, Drier Climate Could Transform Alaskan Forests</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-10-16</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA Explorers S3 E3: The Carbon Problem</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-10-09</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA Explorers S3 E1: Seeing Through Smoke</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-10-08</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA Science Live: A World of Fires</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-09-12</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Boreal Forest Fires Could Release Deep Soil Carbon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-08-21</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA Studies How Arctic Wildfires Change the World</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-08-13</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Landsat, Permafrost Data Offer Insight into Arctic Lake Dynamics</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-07-02</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wireless Networks Gather Soil Moisture Data in the Arctic</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-06-05</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alaska in Flux: Slumping Coastlines</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-02-11</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Living off the Land: Environmental impacts to access in Interior Alaska</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019-01-10</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">North American Bird Maps Enter the Space Age</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2018-12-19</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA Explorers: Permafrost</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2018-12-07</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A new hope: GEDI to yield 3D forest carbon map</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2018-11-07</font></div><div><span style="white-space:pre"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We Are The Land and the Land Is Us: Indigenous Women Accompany NASA Campaign Studying Climate Change in the Arctic</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">View Story</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2018-10-31</font></div></div><div style=""><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wGYm4pABMIkJ:https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/+&cd=12&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:wGYm4pABMIkJ:https://www.natureunited.ca/what-we-do/our-priorities/innovating-for-climate-change/primer-on-forest-carbon-in-canada-s-boreal-forest/%2B%26cd%3D12%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwjMkt24g8jmAhUPK80KHSO9C8gQIDALegQIBRAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"></font></a></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4705"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4705</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As part of a broad effort to study the environmental and societal effects of climate change, NASA has begun a multi-year field campaign to investigate ecological impacts of the rapidly changing climate in Alaska and northwestern Canada, such as the thawing of permafrost, wildfires and changes to wildlife habitats.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) will bring together on-the-ground research in Alaska and northwestern Canada with data collected by NASA airborne instruments, satellites and other agency programs, including the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), and upcoming Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) and NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) missions.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Over the next decade, scientists from NASA and other public and private organizations will investigate questions about the formidable region that spans about 2.5 million square miles (6.4 million square kilometers).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Boreal forests and tundra are critical for understanding the ecological impacts of Earth's changing climate," said Jack Kaye, associate director for research in NASA's Earth Science Division in Washington. "These ecosystems hold a third of the carbon stored on land -- in trees, shrubs and the frozen ground of the permafrost. That's a lot of potential greenhouse gases in play. We need to better understand these ecosystems, and how a warming climate will affect forests, wildlife and communities both regionally and globally."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ABoVE includes three project phases and two seasons of intensive airborne surveys. The research activities will be coordinated with other U.S. and Canadian partner organizations. The 21 projects selected for the first phase will investigate topics such as the impacts of wildfire on ecosystems and insect outbreaks on forest health.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The region is rapidly changing, and we've already seen a lot of that from field measurements and remote sensing," said Scott Goetz, ABoVE science team lead and deputy director at Woods Hole Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. "It's an area that's warming with climate change, and there's a lot of potential for permafrost degradation, especially with these massive fires burning off the organic soil layer."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The field campaign will provide an opportunity to study how Arctic ecosystems respond to the scorching fires on a regional scale. More than 5 million acres in Alaska and 9.7 million acres in Canada have burned so far this year, making 2015 the second most devastating fire year on record for Alaska, with the most intensive three-week period of burning on record, according to Charles Miller, deputy science team lead for ABoVE at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ABoVE researchers will survey Alaska's interior forests to better determine how much carbon is stored in these remote regions. They'll investigate the extent and thawing rate of permafrost -- soils that have been frozen for hundreds of thousands of years, locking in carbon-rich plant and organic matter.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Warming air temperatures can thaw permafrost, which acts like unplugging a deep freezer," said Peter Griffith, ABoVE chief support scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The vegetation and carbon previously frozen in the soil start to rot and decay -- like food in an unplugged freezer -- releasing methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This increase in greenhouse gases further warms air temperatures, perpetuating the cycle by causing more thawing and more greenhouse gas release."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ABoVE projects also will study impacts on the wildlife of Alaska and northern Canada, including habitat and migration changes for raptors, songbirds, Dall sheep, moose, caribou, wolves and brown bears.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The socio-ecological impacts of climate change will be a significant focus of the campaign. The Dall sheep study, for example, will examine the effects of their changing habitat on subsistence hunting and tourism. <b>Another research group will work with village residents in the Yukon-Kuskokwim River Delta of western Alaska to track changes in vegetation, permafrost, fire and lakes.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"More societal impacts of change will be investigated in future projects, with another call for projects scheduled for 12 to 18 months from now," Griffith said. "What's happening in the Arctic is not staying in the Arctic. It certainly matters to the people who live there, but the consequences are far reaching."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ABoVE field campaign's research agenda was developed through workshops that brought together scientific experts from across the United States and Canada, and builds on ongoing NASA projects including the JPL-managed <b>Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE</b>) and Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) airborne missions.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For more information about the ABoVE campaign, visit:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a href="http://above.nasa.gov/">http://above.nasa.gov/</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For more information on NASA's Earth science activities, visit:</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><a href="http://www.nasa.gov/earth" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.nasa.gov/earth</font></a></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></font><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">News Media Contact</font></strong></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Alan Buis<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />818-354-0474<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Alan.Buis@jpl.nasa.gov<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Steve Cole<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />NASA Headquarters, Washington<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />202-358-0918<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Rani Gran<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />301-286-2483<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />rani.c.gran@nasa.gov<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />2015-285
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</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style=""><a href="https://e360.yale.edu/features/the_rapid_and_startling_decline_of_worlds_vast_boreal_forests"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://e360.yale.edu/features/the_rapid_and_startling_decline_of_worlds_vast_boreal_forests</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the&nbsp;<span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Rapid and Startling Decline Of World’s Vast Boreal Forests</span></font></b></div><header class="articletitles " style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 50px 0px 35px; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 57.4468%; background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);"><div class="articletitles-content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="articledek" style="margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; line-height: 1.5; text-align: center;"><p style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="">Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about the fate of the huge boreal forest that spans from Scandinavia to northern Canada. <b>Unprecedented warming in the region is jeopardizing the future of a critical ecosystem that makes up nearly a third of the earth’s forest cover.</b></font></p></div><p class="articleauthors-date" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.375; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 1.5px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="articleauthors" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block;">BY&nbsp;<a class="articleauthor-link" href="https://e360.yale.edu/authors/jim-robbins" style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear 0s;">JIM&nbsp;ROBBINS</a></span>&nbsp;<span class="articleauthors-date-bullet" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 4px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-weight: 800;">•</span>&nbsp;<span class="articledate" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">OCTOBER&nbsp;12,&nbsp;<b>2015</b></span></font></p></div></header><section class="articlebody" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="articleblock articleblock--legacy articleblock--textBlock" style="margin: 0px auto 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 57.4468%; line-height: 1.625; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The boreal forest wraps around the globe at the top of the Northern Hemisphere in North America and Eurasia. Also known as taiga or snow forest, this landscape is characterized by its long, cold and snowy winters. In North America it extends from the Arctic Circle of northern Canada and Alaska down into the very northern tip of the United States in Idaho, Washington, Montana, and Minnesota.<b> It’s the planet’s single largest biome and makes up 30 percent of the globe’s forest cover.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moose are the largest ungulate in the boreal, adapted with their long legs to wade in its abundant marshes, lakes and rivers eating willows, aspen and other plants. In the southern boreal forest of northern Minnesota, moose were once plentiful, but their population has plummeted. Thirty years ago, in the northwest part of the state, there were some 4,000; they now number about a hundred. In the northeast part, they have dropped from almost 9,000 to 4,300. They’ve fallen so far, so fast that some groups want them listed as endangered in the Midwest.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;" /></font></p><div class="imageleft" style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 20px 20px 20px 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; width: 354.203px;"><img src="https://e360.yale.edu/assets/site/features/world_boreal_forests_map.jpg" border="0" alt="world_boreal_forests_map.jpg" style="border-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 100%; display: block;" /><div class="credit" style="margin: 0px; padding: 8px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.375; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The boreal forest extends around the earth at the top of the Northern Hemisphere. HARE AND RITCHIE, 1972</font></div></div><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moose carcasses deteriorate rapidly before they are found, and so forensics has not been able to determine why they are dying. Some experts surmise it could be that tens of thousands of ticks that mob an animal and weaken it. Others think it’s a parasite called liver flukes, or the fact that winters have gotten so warm the animals can’t regulate their body temperature and die from heat stress.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Dennis Murray, a professor of ecology at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, thinks the dying moose of Minnesota and New Hampshire and elsewhere are one symptom of something far bigger — a giant forest ecosystem that is rapidly shrinking, dying, and otherwise changing. “The boreal forest is breaking apart,” he says. “The question is what will replace it?”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);">Many scientists, in fact, are deeply concerned about the state of the world’s largest forest. The Arctic and the boreal region are warming twice as fast as other parts of the world</b><span style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);">. </span><b style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);">Permafrost is thawing and even burning</b><span style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);">, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">fires are burning unprecedented acres of forest, and insect outbreaks have gobbled up increasing numbers of trees. Climate zones are moving north ten times faster than forests can migrate. And this comes on top of increased industrial development of the boreal, from logging to oil and gas. The same phenomena are seen in Russia, Scandanavia, and Finland.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These disturbing signals of a forest in steep decline are why NASA just launched a large-scale research project&nbsp;<a href="http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4705" target="blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228);">called ABoVE</a>&nbsp;— Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment, a “major field campaign” with 21 field projects over the next decade. But the studies will confirm in detail what many know is well underway.</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); text-align: left; margin: 2em 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; line-height: 1.25;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>‘The boreal forest is breaking apart. The question is what will replace it?’ says one scientist.</b></font></blockquote><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Boreal forests have a potential to hit a <b>tipping point</b> this century,” said Anatoly Shvidenko, of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis</span><span style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);"> and a co-author of a survey of&nbsp;</span><a href="http://www.iiasa.ac.at/web/home/about/news/150821_boreal_forests.html" target="blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228);">a recent research on boreal forests</a><span style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);">&nbsp;in the journal&nbsp;</span><em style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">Science</em><span style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);">. “It is urgent we place more focus on climate mitigation and adaptation with respect to these forests.”</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">A tipping point would include the mother of all concerns: the unbridled melting of permafrost, one of the main thrusts of the ABoVE project. The permafrost in the boreal&nbsp;<a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112715002212" target="blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228);">is more susceptible to thawing</a>&nbsp;than in the Arctic because it’s closer to the freezing point. If large-scale melting occurs it would release more carbon dioxide and methane, which have been bound up in the frozen soil for thousands of years, and bring on more warming, and then more thawing, a dangerous loop. “Scientists call it a positive feedback, but most people call that a vicious cycle,” said Peter Griffith, chief support scientist for the ABoVE project.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Murray has been researching the boreal forest for 25 years, and he and his colleagues have seen many changes firsthand. <b>In British Columbia, 80 percent of the province’s mature lodgepole, another boreal species, have recently died from the mountain pine beetle,</b> whose range and season both expanded greatly because of a warmer world. White and black spruce, the main trees species in the boreal, are also dying in vast numbers “The southwest Yukon looks dramatically different than it did 25 years ago when I did my master’s [degree],” he said. “Everywhere you go there is deadfall.”</font></p><div class="imageleft" style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 20px 20px 20px 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; float: left; width: 354.203px;"><div class="credit" style="margin: 0px; padding: 8px 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.375; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">White spruce, shown above near the Denali Highway in Alaska, have been dying off in the boreal forest. NOAA</font></div></div><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NASA has also seen a lot of forest browning in its studies, large swaths of forests with reduced growth that turn brown in the hotter than normal summers, and&nbsp;<a href="http://e360.yale.edu/features/a_new_global_tinderbox_the_worlds_boreal_forests" style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228);">which contribute to much bigger and hotter fires</a>&nbsp;and the thawing of the permafrost. “Severe fires burn a foot or more of organic soil and that’s the insulating layer that keeps the permafrost frozen,” said Scott Goetz, lead scientist on the ABoVE project. “Once that is removed the thaw is much more rapid.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);">The fires also change the vegetation.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“When you remove that organic soil you get deciduous re-growth that lasts for decades,” said Goetz. “Maybe it will never come back as coniferous.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Typically, when black spruce dies, it is replaced with new black spruce. “That’s been going on for a long, long time, [but] not anymore,” Murray says. “You lose spruce and you lose everything that lives in spruce and that is basically everything in the boreal forest. We’re seeing the same phenomena that we’ve seen with moose with lynx and snowshoe hares. And caribou are going belly up very, very fast. Their ranges are receding northward rapidly.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The boreal is also home to some 5 billion birds.</b> Many species have shifted their ranges north. “Climate change is having an impact much more quickly than we thought,” said Jeff Wells, a senior scientist with the International Boreal Campaign who focuses on birds. “Shifts that researchers thought would take place over 50 or a hundred years have taken place over a decade.”</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); text-align: left; margin: 2em 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; line-height: 1.25;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One model shows that a large gap is opening in the boreal forest in Ontario and Quebec.</font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But the changes in such a large system are complex.</b> The forest isn’t merely receding north, it’s dying in some places in its interior and surviving quite well in others.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v520/n7546/full/nature14338.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(235, 228, 228);">A 2015 study</a>&nbsp;found that while boreal spruce forest in interior Alaska is dying out because of warm temperatures, the same forest on the state’s west coast is thriving.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The dying spruce and moose and lynx and other changes are the dots that scientists are trying to connect to get a sense of what the boreal forest in North America will look like in the next half century.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);">The </span><b style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);">caveat is that in a system this massive and complex there are so many variables it’s difficult to forecast with much certainty</b><span style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);">. The projected changes, for example, are based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s temperature forecast of a rise of some 10 degrees by 2100. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Should things warm faster or go higher, the changes could come faster and be deeper or different than modeled. And many changes could simply be unpredictable.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Murray’s modeling shows that a large gap is opening in the boreal in Ontario and Quebec, a gap some 500 by 350 kilometers. It will essentially split the contiguous forest into two separate forests — one to the east, the other to the west — as the black spruce and white spruce disappear. That gap could then become grassland or Carolinian, the forest ecosystem that dominates south of the boreal in Ontario, characterized by oak, maple, black walnut and other deciduous species.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the spruce goes, so goes its inhabitants. “We’re predicting there’s going to be no lynx, moose, or hare in central Ontario in the years to come,” Murray says, “so we’re going to have disjunct populations on either side.” It could cause a break between populations of species and a loss of genetic diversity.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Murray has coined a term for the patchy quality of the effects of warming on the boreal — climate fragmentation. “Because it’s a gradual transition, it won’t be real boreal and it won’t be real deciduous,” says Murray. “Ecosystems will likely be less stable and more open to invasives.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Changes in snow cover are already driving changes.</b> In some places snow covers the ground for shorter periods, and the conditions of the snow are also changing. Instead of three feet of fluffy snow all winter, temperatures rise and melt the snow and then get cold and freeze it and compact it into ice, again and again. In such conditions, lynx, which have thick, padded paws that serve as de facto snowshoes and allow them to hunt atop deep snow, loses it evolutionary advantage. “It affects their ability to survive,” says Murray. “Coyotes, on the other hand, are extremely plastic and flexible. They weren’t in the boreal a hundred years ago, but they are there now. They aren’t everywhere, because they don’t do well in deep snow, but that’s changing.” They are competing with lynx by foraging for their kills and preying on hares and squirrels.</font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); text-align: left; margin: 2em 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; line-height: 1.25;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The boreal isn’t just a forest. It’s woven into the fabric of the region’s life and culture.</b></font></blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The die-off of much of the boreal forest could have serious and unpredictable repercussions on the global climate system. When British Columbia’s lodgepole forests died, the province went from being a carbon sink to a carbon source because the dead forests released massive amounts of stored CO2. If the spruce forests of the boreal disappear they could also alter climate systems by releasing CO2. Because they are dark, they also absorb heat, but a treeless, snow-covered landscape would reflect far more solar energy back into the atmosphere.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Knowing what could happen in the next 50 or 60 years, and where, is important for conservation and other strategies. The boreal, especially in Canada, isn’t just a forest. It’s woven into the fabric of the region’s life and culture.<b> Hundreds of First Nations call the boreal home,</b> and they depend on it for sustenance, hunting moose and caribou, picking berries, and fishing. Paper and lumber industries also depend on a healthy boreal.</font></p><div class="legacy-read-more" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 20px 20px 20px 0px; padding: 30px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.4; float: left; width: 354.203px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALSO FROM YALE e360</font></span><a href="http://e360.yale.edu/features/with_climate_change_a_terrifying_new_normal_for_western_firefighters" style="background-color: transparent; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear 0s; border: none; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: 600; display: block; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">With Climate Change, Terrifying New Normal for Western Firefighters</font></span></a></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
In the last two decades, officials in Colorado have watched as massive, months-long wildfires have become a regular occurrence in their state. A&nbsp;<em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">Yale Environment 360</em>&nbsp;video goes onto the front lines with Colorado firefighters who describe what it’s like to continuously confront deadly blazes fueled by a hotter, drier climate.</font><a href="http://e360.yale.edu/features/with_climate_change_a_terrifying_new_normal_for_western_firefighters" style="background-color: transparent; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s linear 0s; border: none; line-height: 1.2; font-weight: 600; display: block; letter-spacing: 0.01em;"><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">WATCH THE VIDEO</font></span></a></div><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The research NASA is doing will be used to help determine how communities and land managers in the boreal might adapt to changes. Dall sheep in the Yukon, for example, are in decline and a subject of one of NASA’s studies. The results will be given to provincial and federal officials in Canada to make decisions on issues ranging from hunting to access to land management.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, in the hope of slowing the thawing of boreal permafrost, the International Boreal Conservation Campaign has launched a “cold carbon storage campaign.” This initiative is aimed at managing the boreal in ways that keep as much as possible frozen — no road building atop it, for example, or the creation of new large scale carbon reserves.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But such measures can only do so much. The real decisions on the fate of the boreal are up to the world community. It’s not a good sign that when I contacted Canadian Forest Service scientist Sylvie Gauthier, the lead author of the Science paper that surveyed threats to the boreal, I was told by a public affairs officer that the interview would be on “deep background only” with no attribution to her or her employer. The federal government of Canada, facing some the world’s most serious climate change threats, has gone to great lengths to squelch any discussion of this issue.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246); margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet even as they redouble their research efforts, scientists know the ultimate answer is not about adaptation or more research, but a rapid reduction in global CO2 emissions, which so far has shown little hope of being achieved. NASA’s Griffith says the situation reminds him of his father, a small-town doctor. “Even when the patient ignored his advice over and over again, he would continue to treat the patient,” he said. “A lot of us in the climate and ecosystem world are finding ourselves dealing with a similar kind of problem.”</font></p></div></section><footer class="articleblock articlefooter" style="margin: 0px auto 1em; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 57.4468%; background-color: rgb(252, 250, 246);"><div class="author-bios" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="author-biosbio" style="margin: 0px; padding: 30px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; border-top: 1px solid rgb(202, 198, 191); display: flex; -webkit-box-pack: start; justify-content: flex-start;"><div class="author-biostext" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="author-bios__bio-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.625; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: bolder; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; box-sizing: border-box;">Jim Robbins</span>&nbsp;is a veteran journalist based in Helena, Montana.</font></p></div></div></div></div></footer><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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