Permafrost is thawing due to rising Arctic temperatures, releasing greenhouse gases like nitrous oxide. This threatens infrastructure like the Tibetan railway and is exacerbating climate change through a feedback loop. As permafrost thaws, it releases more gases that cause more warming and thawing. While the situation presents challenges, it is not too late to take action through initiatives like more efficient energy use and further research.

1. Thawing Permafrost
Sending Climate Alert
Name Lu Xueke
Class 08215102

2. CLIMATE ALERT
Permafrost is thawing
Arctic is degrading
N2O is slowly releasing
Natural calamity
Rebuild the Tibetan Plateau railway?
Boomed bettles destroyed the forest in Alaska
EMBRACE CHALLENGES
It is never too late to take action
Recommendations

3. What is
permafrost?
 soil at or below the freezing point of water for 2 or more years
 located in high latitudes
 accounts for 0.022% of total water
 exists in 24% of exposed land
in the Northern Hemisphere
 Time taken for permafrost
to reach depth

4. time taken for permafrost to
reach depth
Time (yr) Depth (m)
1 4.44
350 79.9
3500 219.3
35,000 461.4
100,000 567.8

5. melting
arctic
•Temperature have risen by up to 3°C in the past 50 years.
•Temperature will rise by a further 2 - 9°C this century.
•Animals are in danger.

6. Penguins lose habitat.
Polar bears kill each other
Sea lion is dying under the sun.

7. A new greenhouse gAses (n2o)
 released by thawing permafrost in Greenland
 298-times more powerful than CO2
 rate of nitrous oxide is low
CO2 CH4
N2O

8. Arctic is in A Vicious cycle
Glacier
Collapse
Temperature
rising
Permafrost
Thawing
Greenhouse
Gases ,
Microorganisms
releasing

9. emission of greenhouse gAses
In a pothole, buried air and gas
from bacteria and algae
bubbled to the surface,
where a midnight freeze trapped them.
Emission of CH4 from the ice
in North Canada.

10. nAturAl
cAlAmity
Tibetan Plateau railway Foundation deformation
Will cost another 4,000,000,000 dollars?
Trains will aggravate the thawing
Dead spruce---victim of tiny beetles
 1 million acres have succumbed to
the spruce bark beetle
dead trees release greenhouse gases

11. EmbracE
challEngEs
【 Astonishing Data 】
Green house gases covered an area of nearly 800,000 square miles
of Actic
 In 2009 summer season, only 10% of Arctic sea ice
was more than 2 years old
 Arctic Ocean will become sea-ice free in 20 to 40 years.
About 1,000,000,000 tons of green house gases will emit.

12. EmbracE
challEngEs
【 Astonishing Data (cont.) 】
The methane density nowadays is the highest ever since the
400,000 years
The ice ratio of the permafrost is decreasing year to year.
But it is never too late to take action.

13. Comparison of sea ice age at the end of winter in February 2009 (right)
with the 1981-2000 average (left).
back

14. (a)Year-to-year changes of permafrost’s Ice ratio.
(b) soil temperature, in Layer10 for six analysis regions.

15. It Is nEvEr too
latE
to takE actIonChina
1. lowering the relative use of energy by 14.4%
2. cut energy intensity 20% by the end of 2010

16. It Is never too
late
to take actIon
America
1. Stream water study detects thawing permafrost
2. a new IBM supercomputer installed by NCAR for
Improved Climate and Weather Research

18. Do you want our Arctic
Ocean to be like this?
If No…
Recommendation
1. Use less water
2. Walk more, drive less
3. Energy-efficient light bulbs
4. Eat less meat
5. Use recycle bags
…………….