Saturday, August 07, 2010

Russian forest fires

I think "feedback loop." Climate change, drought, more fires then spewing more carbon dioxide into air speeding up global warming a bit. There's a lot of stored carbon in Russia's forests, now some of it going up in smoke. I don't think the sky is falling, but there are these kind of feedback loops that can effect predicted time tables for global warming. Scary.

The news says that some of that haze I am seeing on my bike trip through Spokane area is all the way from Russia, rather than just our own Washington State forest fire season. Lots of haze and orange sunsets.

So far this year, Washington State fire season has been mild, due in part to late season rains.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not too worried about carbon from the biosphere (forest fires) ending up in the atmosphere, for that carbon recycles back and forth through these two 'spheres and has been in balance for millenia. On the other hand, carbon from the lithosphere (petroleum, coal) introduces net additional carbon into the atmosphere and is changing the balance, which is causing climate change.

Anonymous said...

That was from Yakima Phil!!!

Theslowlane Robert Ashworth said...

Thanks for the comment Phil. I'm worried that carbon from the lithosphere (petroleum coal) will tip the balance by making some areas warmer and dryer. Then there is a feedback loop from other natural things like forest fires or methane being released from bogs that speeds up making these natural sources of carbon more prolific as well.