In Brief
- A detailed set of aerial photos taken in the 1940s for oil exploration in northern Alaska has provided the most graphic evidence that the Arctic tundra is turning shrubbier and is “greening.”
- Satellite remote sensing indicates that, in sharp contrast, the boreal forests south of the tundra are “browning”—the result of dry conditions, more intense fires, and insect infestations.
- Both the greening and the browning can be attributed to global climate change. Thee ecosystem transitions are likely to profoundly affect the wildlife and human inhabitants of the region and may even intensify global warming.
The year was 1944. World War II was showing signs of winding down, but predictions that the Japanese would fight to the bitter end had the Allies gravely concerned that they would run out of gasoline for the war effort. The 23-million-acre Naval Petroleum Reserve in northern Alaska was a prime location for finding new sources of oil, and the U.S. Navy decided to explore. But the navy had a problem: no maps. So it decided to take an exceptionally detailed set of aerial photographs.
Basing out of Ladd Field, near Fairbanks, surveyors mounted a massive K-18 camera in the open door of a twin-engine Beechcraft. Over several years, flying low and slow, they took thousands of photographs of Alaska’s North Slope, extending from the Arctic Ocean south to the Brooks Range, and of the forested valleys on the south side of the range—itself a part of the boreal forest of evergreens and deciduous trees that stretches across a large swath of the Arctic.
This article was originally published with the title Arctic Plants Feel the Heat.
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8 Comments
Add CommentSorry, the military is also in on the worldwide Climate Change hoax. All this data and observations have been manipulated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI just had to get the denier BS out of the way. ;)
Seriously how can people still deny that the climate is warming? There are literally hundreds of independent, data-backed measurements and observations.
Thousands.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"My father thinks I paid for all of this with catering jobs. Never underestimate the power of denial."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot really applicable in context but certainly the basic argument is the same. People hate change, and they hate it more when it requires them to do something. So they'd rather believe there's no change at all, without any regard for consequences.
Bonus points if you can identify the quote.
The denial is that it is anthropogenetic. There is overwhelming evidence that the earth has warmed and cooled dramatically many times in the past. It's like saying scantily clad women cause earthquakes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@tiger_swimmer -
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"There is overwhelming evidence that the earth has warmed and cooled dramatically many times in the past."
- Yes, very true. There are also very well developed scientific theories to explain the processes that have caused these changes.
If one denies (or argues) that climate change (warming) IS happening but is is not caused by man, then that would put one in the so called skeptics camp.
There are people that say that the earth is NOT getting warmer. Some even go as far to say that the earth is actually cooling - that every bit of current and historical climate science is a hoax and a fraud.
P.S. - the correct word is anthropogenic.
P.P.S. - Scantily clad women only cause earthquakes if they are promiscuous:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/19/world/main6411387.shtml
<extreme sarcasm>
candide, thanks for pointing out the typo.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisP.S. - The correct phrase is "... but is not caused by man, ..."
Yet another lazy response to changing how we live so that we can at least fix problems WE KNOW WE HAVE CREATED! excuses, excuses....all prevent us from co-evolving responsibly with our environment as part of the ecosystem we live in and CANNOT DENY!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm not saying you're lazy...I'm not sure if you are saying you agree with that mentality, although it does sound so....
Of course SOMETHING WILL GET US! That should not be the issue....to try to control our environment so that we can survive, which is what we have been doing....the issue should be, are we doing what is right? When something does get us, will we go IN PEACE? And, what are we leaving behind? Obviously it's not right to cause the suffering of future generations so that we can have excessive and unnecessary conveniences! Not just future generations, but even other cultures and regions....we pollute environments we believe we're not a part of, because if we don't have to deal with it immediately then we believe we're off the hook! How absolutely naive! EVERYTHING'S CONNECTED!
Wouldn't happen to be Blow would it?
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