Subcommittee Investigates Potential Permafrost Melt off as a Tipping Point in Global Warming, and the Danger it Poses to the Polar Bear Population

Press Release

Subcommittee Investigates Potential Permafrost Melt off as a Tipping Point in Global Warming, and the Danger it Poses to the Polar Bear Population

The Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology convened a hearing today to examine the melting of the permafrost and sea ice in the Arctic, and the destruction of the boreal forests, as they relate to global warming and the survival of the polar bear population.

"We must have a complete understanding of the potential threats of global warming. We must put this country and the world, on a path to reducing carbon emissions. We certainly can do it, and probably at a relatively modest cost, if we have the will," said Subcommittee Chairman Brad Miller (D-NC).

The Committee has long been a leader in bringing the importance of climate change to the attention of the nation. Former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Al Gore held his first hearings on climate change as the Chairman of the I&O Subcommittee in the 1980s. The Committee was also the driving force in the creation of the U.S. Global Change Research Program in 1990, which launched focused research on global warming. Earlier this year, the Committee moved a significant amendment to that act (H.R. 906).

The permafrost in the arctic holds an enormous reservoir of methane, a greenhouse gas that is over 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. As the permafrost melts because of global warming, it releases methane and carbon dioxide --- further accelerating global warming. This release of greenhouse gases from the arctic landmass was not included in the recent modeling done by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Dr. Richard Alley, Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at the University of Pennsylvania State University and a member of the IPCC, discussed how new evidence about natural sources of greenhouse gases impacts earlier predictions of global warming. "This is science; it is not revealed truth and there are of course some uncertainties related to this (prediction of climate change). Unfortunately what we find is that around our central estimates, things might be a little better, they might be a little bit worse. We have not yet found a lot better, but we have found the possibility of a lot worse. That is especially linked to this issue of abrupt climate changes, or what are now called tipping points," explained Alley.

"Rapid Arctic ice and permafrost melt are the kind of events with cascading effects that tip the planet's climate into an uncontrollable cycle of warming. The result could be an acceleration of the melting of the ice sheets in Greenland, inundating coastal communities and devastating the world economy," said Chairman Miller.

In September, the U.S. Geological Survey issued a report projecting that, based on projected sea ice melts, two-thirds of the world's polar bears will be gone by 2050.

"The polar bear is completely dependent on sea ice for all of its essential behaviors, including travel, mating, and hunting ice dependent seals. They cannot hunt seals from land," said Kassie R. Siegel, director of the Climate, Air, and Energy Program for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Ms. Siegel presented the Center for Biological Diversity's plan to help mitigate the short-term, man-made effects of global warming. "Methane is 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide and remains in the atmosphere for about 12 years. Conservative estimates from the EPA indicate that 13% of US methane emissions could be reduced by 2010 at a cost benefit or no cost," she explained.

The committee also received testimony from Dr. Glenn Juday, professor in the School of Natural Resources, University of Alaska at Fairbanks, on the decline of the boreal forests in the Arctic, melting of Arctic Sea Ice, and warming trends in the permafrost. Dr. Sue Haseltine, Associate Director of Biology for the United States Geological Survey at the U.S. Department of the Interior testified about recent changes in the Arctic sea ice, and the resulting decline in polar bear populations.

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