A Foresty Future?

Shrinking Tundra, Advancing Rainforests: The Arctic by 2099 

A South Korean and US science research team believe that by the end of the 21st century, the tundras, areas of dry cold hard land, will turn into areas of vast vegetation (by needle-leaf and broad-leaf forests) in areas like Alaska, Canada, Eastern Europe, Northern Asia, and Scandanavia. This team put together the results of "16 global climate models from 1950 to 2099" with more than 100 years of observational data to try and figure out what this change in climate might do to the way of life in the Arctic by the 22nd century. Results from the analyzation show that by the end of this century the average Arctic surface temperature will increase by 3-5 degrees Celsius depending on the case. One reason this will most likely occur is because as one of the scientists, Feng, states "The expansion of forest may amplify global warming because the newly forested areas can reduce the surface reflectivity, thereby furthur warming the Arctic" and areas like it. Though this will be occuring everywhere, it will be occuring at different speeds. Through their studies,the researchers found that depending on the region, the temperature might rise at a more rapid pace because of certain vegetation growing there, such as in norther Europe and Alaska. Scientist Feng notes that this is because, "The plants don't have legs, so it takes time for plant seed dispersal, germination, and establishment of seedlings," explaining why over time the amount of shrub density has been rapidly increasing on a shorter timescale compared to the expansion of forests in the north.

This made me realize that at the rate things are warming up, the Earth could be soon covered just as it had been before, entirely in ocean. What would we do then? Probably with the technology nowadays, we could figure out how to directly turn water into air and create an Atlantis, and underwater mythical nation, until we can resurface again. Another option would be to move to the moon and begin civilization there, waiting for the Earth to cool down again, but this won't help anything. The real problem is that with the rapid increase in temperature, the polar ice caps are melting, which is increasing the heating rate even more. How can we fix this? by installing heat controlling machines into the water? At this point in life, scientists are still trying to find a clue. So for now, be-aware of the future snow people, life's going to get a whole lot warmer.

Citations:
ForestWalkway. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2011. <http://www.google.com/
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     broadleaf_deciduous_FAO.jpg>.

Geographical Pattern of Surface Warming. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2011.
     <http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2011/
     finalwebsite/graphics/climate/tempmap1.png>.

Environmentalresearchweb. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Apr. 2011.
     <http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/45607>.