[SustainableTompkins] carbon time bomb

[John Miller]

Washington Post article on boreal forests future contribution to a
runaway CO2
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17268928/
 
Excerpts
 
"We are taking risks with a system we don't understand that is
absolutely loaded with carbon," said Steven Kallick, a Seattle-based
expert on the boreal forests for the Pew Charitable Trusts. "The impact
could be enormous."
Scientists acknowledge they are not certain how the carbon time bomb
will explode, or when. Many of the consequences of global warming that
experts once predicted would take centuries are occurring in decades,
such as the melting of the world's glaciers and ice caps. But other
changes might be more gradual.
"With permafrost, it may take longer for change to get moving. But it
may keep moving, even if we get our emissions under control," said
Antoni Lewkowicz, a professor of geography at the University of Ottawa.
"It's like a big boulder. Once you get it moving, it won't stop."