[GWSG] Fossil fuel subsides; new permafrost study

[Tilley, Al]

The new study on permafrost reflected in item 2 is so urgent that I am not going to wait for other items to accumulate before circulating it.

Allen

1.  The actual subsidies for fossil fuels are not only hard to calculate, they are uncalculated.  The total should include military actions to protect the industry, cut-rate access to public lands with no responsibility to restore them, and pollution forgiveness.  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2011/02/top-eia-energy-trends-watcher-no-definitive-count-on-dirty-energy-welfare?cmpid=WNL-Friday-February18-2011

2.  According to a study from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, we are 15-20 years away from the time when melting Arctic permafrost begins to escape our ability to reverse its release of carbon.  The carbon release will initiate a feedback which will render large parts of the planet uninhabitable.  This first attempt to model the amount and time of the carbon release simplifies the situation by ignoring the methane hydrates, among other dragons.    http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=54518  A 2009 Nature article by UF ecologist Ted Schuur and others came up with similar figures.  http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-05/uof-bga052609.php  A couple of visuals (and a soft-pedaled account of the Boulder study): http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41625347/ns/us_news-environment/   A U of CO video interview with Kevin Schafer, lead author of the study:  http://www.redorbit.com/news/video/?mid=34705  If the Boulder study does not put effective pressure behind our attempts to bring about a transition to renewable energy, we are unwarnable.
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