For centuries the tundra with its shrubs and mosses took in carbon dioxide from the air and stored it in their tissues. When the plants died, the carbon dioxide was kept frozen in the earth’s soil.
In the last two decades the warmer temperatures are melting the Arctic tundra, releasing more carbon dioxide than the tundra is taking in. This is a new development, the first of its kind since the last ice age. So, between 2001 and 2020, with the wild fires and the thawing, the tundra are helping to warm the planet. If we lowed the temperature, of course, the tundra would again take in carbon dioxide.
Like that’s gonna happen.
Info for this post is from Raymond Zhong, “Arctic Tundra, Once a Cooling Force, Stokes Heat,” New York Times, (Dec. 11, 2024), p. A5.
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