Comments on: Tundra 3: Forests and fires foster feedbacks

By: Dano

Dano — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:58:28 +0000

Bark beetles are also devastating Colorado in the US, and are moving into Wyoming. Other beetles are in the pondo forests in Arizona and California. The understanding at this time is the cause is multiple factors – a combination of drought, warm winter temps and fire suppression.

The issue in BC (I backpacked in Cathedral Lakes two autumns ago and can attest to the devastation) and the US is multifold. In Colorado there will be less snowpack – and down on the Front Range, that likely will result in depopulation in a few decades, as the aquifers will be depleted and less runoff will mean the current human population (future growth notwithstanding) won’t have enough water to sustain it.

Best,

By: hapa

hapa — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:47:49 +0000

cat’s-eye power.

By: hapa

hapa — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:46:55 +0000

i’ve been wondering for a couple weeks now what constitutes a green roof. i’m starting to think it’s a highly-insulated cool roof, to increase albedo, instead of plants or PV shingles.it occurs to me that if photovoltaic devices could be made translucent, they could be placed on a white backing and have the light pass through them roughly twice, allowing reflection and generation at once.

By: agog

agog — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:20:41 +0000

Sorry. Have just found your April 25 post. Bleh! Grim stuff.

By: agog

agog — Fri, 30 May 2008 11:56:29 +0000

To this layman’s eye the maps showing the extent of mountain pine beetle infestation in British Columbia linked to above by Caerbannog are very ominous indeed.

Are the climate ramifications of losing an expanse of forest of this size (and more in the future, presumably) quantifiable? Even if methane isn’t an issue at those latitudes, am I correct in assuming the loss of carbon sink effect combined with carbon emissions from the inevitable forest fires will be significant?

Joe, do please write about this if you haven’t already. (Cracking blog, btw.)

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:42:38 +0000

Arne

“The danger lay in the unknown runaway processes that might have started already in the Arctic or in the tundras …”

Another danger we don’t talk about much is the runaway process of global industrialization. This now looks unstoppable.

By: exusian

exusian — Thu, 29 May 2008 20:37:56 +0000

Nylo wrote: “Also, in the second photo, I see more and bigger trees in the same area, but I don’t see the forested area changing.”

More and bigger trees in an area where trees are typically few and stunted is not a change?

There’s a reason the tree line is called the tree line.

And there is a reason the tree line is moving northward.

Obviously those reasons have escaped Nylo’s comprehension.

By: charlie

charlie — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:54:02 +0000

Joe — great series. You are much stronger when doing this explaining, or “the wedges” than when on the attack.

By: Reader

Reader — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:53:50 +0000

Hey, did you guys hear that An Inconvenient Truth is going to be made into an Italian opera? Isn’t that exciting?

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:55:30 +0000

Nylo — the photo was obviously not taken during the snow-covered season. That is when the Trees would dramatically change the albedo.

The forest fire will change the albedo the most during the non-snow-covered season. It is an interesting question as to whether reduction in trees during the winter would have a bigger impact than the darker surface during summer — presumably the darker surface is much larger in the area of trees.

I see more trees, but I’m not sure you can see the forest for the trees….