Cold United

In this Oct. 23, 2010 photo, Russian scientist Sergey Zimov walks on a Siberian lake near the town of Chersky, Russia, where methane bubbles are trapped under the ice. Gas locked inside Siberia's frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in the last few decades, as the Earth has gradually warmed, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly, accelerating the release of methane _ a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide _ at a perilous rate. Photo by AP Photo/Arthur Max.

Below is another news story about Sergey Zimov‘s research results.

Who is Sergey Zimov? He is well-known scientiest in my region, the director of the Northeast Science Station in Chersky (see on the map) in the Russian Republic of Sakha in northeastern Siberia.

Mr. Zimov is the most cited by international media. When you hear anything about climate changes’ affects on Siberia’s Arctic, Pleistocene ecosystem in the northern steppes as well as the re-establishment of a grassland ecosystem known as Pleistocene Park in the way of its existence during the Pleistocene period, just know that the major resource of all these newsbreaking stories is Sergey Zimov, a Russian scientiest in the Northeastern Siberia.

This time, precisely yesterday, his scientific computation was featured in Associated Press’ Leaking Siberian ice raises a tricky climate issue.

Mr. Zimov gave Arthur Max, an AP reporter, evidences to some scientists’ beliefs of thawing permafrost could become the epicenter of climate change as 1.5 trillion tons of carbon, locked inside icebound earth since the age of mammoths, might be a climate time bomb waiting to explode if released into the atmosphere.

Arthur Max’s story:

CHERSKY, Russia – The Russian scientist shuffles across the frozen lake, scuffing aside ankle-deep snow until he finds a cluster of bubbles trapped under the ice. With a cigarette lighter in one hand and a knife in the other, he lances the ice like a blister. Methane whooshes out and bursts into a thin blue flame.

Gas locked inside Siberia’s frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in the past few decades, as the Earth has warmed, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly, accelerating the release of methane — a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide — at a perilous rate.

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